From the ArcaMax Publishing, Science & Technology Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/technology/s-567487-954592
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- A new species of mushroom found on the African
island of Sao Tome has been named after California Academy of Sciences
curator of herpetology Robert Drewes.
The two-inch-long mushroom grows on wood and is shaped like a phallus,
San Francisco State University Professor Dennis Desjardin and Brian
Perry, the scientists who discovered the mushroom, said.
Phallus drewesii belongs to a group of mushrooms known as stinkhorns,
which produce a foul, rotting meat odor. There are 28 other species of
Phallus fungi worldwide, but scientists said the new species is
notable for its small size, white net-like stem, and brown
spore-covered head. It is also the only Phallus species to curve
downward instead of upward.
"The mushroom emerges from an egg and elongates over four hours,"
Desjardin said. "Its odor attracts flies who consume the spores and
disperse them throughout the forest."
Desjardin and Perry said they named the new species after Drewes as an
acknowledgment of his "inspiration and fortitude to initiate,
coordinate and lead multiorganism biotic surveys on Sao Tome and
Principe."
"It's a wonderful honor and great fun to have this phallus-shaped
fungus named after me," Drewes said. "I have been immortalized in the
scientific record."
The new mushroom will be described in the July/August issue of the
journal Mycologia.