Photographed at Hilliers Arboretum last week. Its Gyromitra Esculenta or also known as False Morel or Turban Fungus. Deadly poisonous when raw and suspected of some sort of accumulative poison even when well cooked. Specimen no bigger than 5cm wide.
(http://www.geocities.com/mycoweb/gyro2.jpg)
Mark
;) Excellent piccy Mark, I love some of these fungi close-ups, I have no idea what this is but it was sharing a pot with my Cycas revoluta ;D
(http://img227.exs.cx/img227/5811/fungi5fe.jpg) (http://www.imageshack.us)
And here's 3 more. First one is a Bracket Fungi. Second and third are stink-dog...hence the fly.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/Kenkew/Fungitree.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/Kenkew/Stinkhorn02.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/Kenkew/StinkDog.jpg)
Roy your fungus looks like a hat . Just the type of thing Audrey Hepburn would wear ;D I wonder if it's edible. No, Roy don't be tempted or you might get screaming ab dabs like what I did when I ate some funny ones. I used to work at a pit and it was someone's idea of a joke. Tt They were delish though ;D
Roy, thats a nice pic of a few prime specimens of Leucocoprinus Birnbaumii. It is unedible, perhaps mildly poisonous. I've seen it at Kew Gardens in the Princess of wales conservatory.
Mark