Page 10 - Ninja Plants: Survival and Adaptation in the Plant World

Stinkhorns and other
mushrooms reproduce
by releasing millions
of tiny spores, which
will grow into new
organisms. Like many
plants, stinkhorns
attract flies (but repel
humans) with their
strong odor. The flies
help spread stinkhorn
spores to new locales.

You might not even notice it if you walked in the forest, but you
can guess how it got its name! The stinkhorn isn’t actually a plant. It
is a mushroom (a type of fungus), an organism that obtains its food
by absorbing nutrients from the living and dead plants and animals
on which it lives. Stinkhorns are covered with smelly and sticky
reproductive cells called spores, which stink like human waste. This
smell is perfect for attracting carrion flies, which are crazy about the
scent. The flies land on the brown slime covering the mushroom and
devour the tasty sugars it contains. As they do, the mushroom’s spores
enter their digestive systems and also stick to their bodies. When the
flies land elsewhere in the forest, they transfer the sticky spores through
their feet and their feces, thereby dispersing the spores widely and
allowing for more stinkhorns to grow and thrive.

FUNKY FRUIT

Asia, with its wealth of rain forests and diverse ecosystems, is home
to some of the most fascinating plants in the world and has more
smelly plants than most places. Perhaps the most popular of these
plants is the durian tree (Durio zibethinus), which is common to

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N I NJ A P L AN T S