Along our driveway terrace in the tea plantation area, where i had put some woodchips as mulch, i found this strange thing growing.

It was clearly a mushroom, but unlike any i have ever seen, with a 7-fold symmetry. I immediately came in and googled with terms like “seven-pointed red mushroom fungus 7-fold”, but didn’t find it. A few days later Deb found it. It is called Aseroe rubra, the starfish fungus or “sea anemone fungus”, an “unusual tropical member of the ornate stinkhorn family, widespread throughout the Hawaiian Islands and the south Pacific.” The forms can be quite diverse, with anywhere from 5-fold to 12-fold symmetry in the pictures i’ve found online. (See: at mushroomexpert.com, on google images) Supposedly it smells bad, but i didn’t smell anything from the ones on my terrace. In any case, since tea can pick up subtle flavors from its environment, i’m not going to let any of these mushrooms grow on our farm!