Ruud Kleinpaste: Basket Fungi - the winter beauties with a smelly job

Author: Ruud Kleinpaste,
Publish Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2026, 12:22pm

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We all see toadstools and mushrooms and fungi in autumn and winter (and beyond). It was just six weeks ago that we trumpeted the amazing contestants for the “Fungus of the Year”.

But gardeners, nature nerds, and kids often find these wonderfully weirdly shaped miniature soccer balls lying on the forest floor – white with light-brown slimy structures.

Basket fungi are large spherical structures that carry the spores of the fungus: it’s that brown smudgy stuff on the white, rubbery polygons.

Those spores smell quite putrid (try them!) and attract all kinds of flies that lap up the moisture – it’s probably full of proteins and nutrients!

Spores stick to their feet, and as they land in the forest on some organic debris, the fungal spores are distributed – repeating the cycle.

When you see a very juvenile version (they look like creamy-white eggs, sticking half out of the ground) just grab one and cut it open!

It’s remarkable how the basket fungus is totally compressed, ready to hatch inside that “egg”.

Main points of the story… What can we learn from this fungus?

They recycle stuff – there is no waste in nature.
The various flies and other insects spread the spores throughout the forest – I reckon those brown/creamy patches attract those flies.
If you have some patience, you can see the flies “licking” the yummy spores up before flying away to other parts of the forest floor.
I remember my Jack Russell used to find the smelly deposit and licked it himself!
Nature cooperates… everybody wins in the arrangement.
Nature communicates with chemical clues – the smell of the spores attracts the vectors.

Want to know how to economize on transport cost by reducing the size of packages? Have a look at the basket fungus!

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