Talk:Phallus indusiatus

Phallus indusiatus is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on May 10, 2013.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 4, 2010	Good article nominee	Listed
September 20, 2012	Featured article candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on August 18, 2008.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that parts of the veiled stinkhorn Phallus indusiatus have been consumed by lifeforms as diverse as bees, flies, Chinese diplomats and Henry Kissinger?

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Genus

My research shows that this species might actually be in the genus Phallus. Badagnani 04:15, 12 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can we get a link to your research? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.19.250.42 (talk) 16:01, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The article shows that the species is in the genus Phallus. Other genera were proposed, but it is back in Phallus. I don't think that there is a question. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:33, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That is correct. When Badagnani wrote this note in 2006, the article was named Dictyophorus indusiatus. Sasata (talk) 16:37, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Year discovered

Thanks for the move. I think there are two separate new species names, depending on whether the mushroom has the net surrounding it (this is discussed on some websites). Can this be clarified? Also, there are two years given: one in the box and one in the text: 1798 and 1809. Which is correct? Badagnani 18:59, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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Purpose of the 'skirt'

I came to this article hoping to find out what the purpose of the indusium or 'skirt' that forms around the base of the mushroom. Is it for protection from larger animals such as rodents? If there is a known theory as to what its function is I would be very grateful if someone could add it. 93.97.42.178 (talk) 11:21, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Only took 4 years to answer this, but here. Sasata (talk) 17:33, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Orgasms

Many mycologists think that the study that says that this species produces female orgasms is complete BS and I am inclined to agree.

It is true that a peer reviewed study says its true.

This may say more about the peer review process than the ability of this fungus to produce female orgasms.

Alan Rockefeller (Talk - contribs) 12:28, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Aloha Alan. I don't necessarily disagree with you, but we have to follow the principle of verifiability, not truth. If someday a mycologist were to publish their contradictory opinion about this study in a reliable source, then we would certainly include that here too (going to Hawaii anytime soon?) Sasata (talk) 14:30, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The reference to this supposedly peer reviewed study is wrong. While this ref seems to be in use in many webpages, the journal did not publish a 5 pages article, but a scarcely half page one. That has no materials and methods section, and does not seem to go beyond the status of a letter. Seems far from being peer reviewed. Also the information about the methods of the study is not verifiable, since the article referenced does not report them. It seems like this part needs more confirmation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.150.133.82 (talk) 22:29, 8 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You are probably referring to the 1-page PDF abstract that is available on the 'net. The full study is indeed 5 pages, with materials & methods described. Sasata (talk) 23:04, 8 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

File:Phallus indusiatus 96871 ed2.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Phallus indusiatus 96871 ed2.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on June 4, 2012. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2012-06-04. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! —howcheng {chat} 08:44, 3 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Picture of the day

Phallus indusiatus is a stinkhorn fungus found all over the world in tropical areas. The fungus is characterised by a conical to bell-shaped cap on a stipe and a lacy "skirt" that hangs from beneath the cap. Mature fruit bodies are up to 30 cm (12 in) tall with a cap that is 2–4 cm (0.8–1.6 in) long. It is an edible mushroom used as an ingredient in Chinese haute cuisine.Photo: Christian Schwarz

Archive – More featured pictures...

Revision

References

Something odd is going on with the two Zhongguo Shiyongju refs: they have issue numbers, but no volumes, should those issues be volumes or are volumes missing? Speaking of it, have you actually seen the articles? Or are you citing them secondhand/abstract only?

I have photocopies of these articles; there do not appear to be volume numbers. Only the abstracts are in English, so I guess in effect I'm citing by abstract. Sasata (talk) 18:07, 29 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible to doublecheck the language of Das & al. (2007)?

Spanish, added original title. Sasata (talk) 18:07, 29 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Generally, I've found the streammlined {{Cite conference}} to provide little to no actual useful features over {{Cite book}} (the pre-streamlining was more useful), so I converted the (somewhat messed up) Yang & Jong (1987) ref to it. In many citation styles book series are treated as if they were periodicals. I assume that's what caused the confusion here.
The two Lloyd refs seems to have been the same (though it was a mess to track what was being referred to). You might want to double-check that it is correct.

I'll get on the prose's case tomorrow. Circéus (talk) 04:45, 29 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Taxonomic history

I've put in a reference for Dictyophora lutea. I think the rest of the synonymy can be covered with Kasuya (2008) and the refs therein. Unless we intend to give full citation of the other names, we can probably drop Das & al. (2007) (and maybe even the authors to lighten the text?).

Trimmed and simplified. Sasata (talk) 05:01, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not too familiar with greek, maybe we can find someone from the classics project or something that can look at the word quoted in Desvaux's description of Dictyophora and transcribe them for us? (they are in a footnote, but I can't make the precise letters: I think it's in italics)

Added a request. Sasata (talk) 08:38, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you all want linked references to Liddell & Scott, this will give both entries in the 9th unabridged edition: Liddel, H.G. & Scott, R. A Greek–English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford, 1940), s.v. δίκτυον and φέρω. ^davidiad _.:τ 16:59, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, much appreciated! Sasata (talk) 17:11, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think the paragraph on common names need sources for the Chinese names, and to actually say that 竹 is the Chinese word for bamboo.

I can find a source for one of the Chinese common names, but not for the transliteration of either. Have placed a help request at WP:CHINA. Sasata (talk) 19:43, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have come across a source that connects the japanese name to those referring to the indusium (kinugasa, a lady's veiled hat). Also shuffled a name from the indusium names to the bamboo names.

Excellent – added. Sasata (talk) 05:01, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Description and lookalikes

I think some clarification of the transition from the immature to mature fruit body is a good idea (namely the fact that the mature body breaks and emerges from the universal veil-style peridium, rather than merely changing shape). Also we have to be careful because the "volva" of Phallus species might not (as I understand) be analogous to that of agarics. Need checking.

Good idea. When I was scouring the Biodiversity Heritage Library pages, I vaguely recall seeing a old journal article that described the development of this mushroom. Will see if I can find it again and summarize for here. Sasata (talk) 20:41, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a bit about this now (and a link to a time-lapse video, clearly worth more than 1000 words). Found that source I was looking for here. Do you think it'd be worthwhile to grab Fig. 336#3 and perhaps 337#1 and use them to help go into some more detail about the mechanism of fruit body development? Peridial remnants of gasteroid fungi are also referred to as a volva; have amended the volva article to reflect this. Sasata (talk) 08:21, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Changed "polyhedral" to "polygonal". I don,t think they are cube- or pyramid-shaped.
What does "collapsing" mean? Does it "tuck" into the volva or does it rather "crumple" like the Alta Floresta specimen depicted?

The latter; added "collapsing on the stalk". Sasata (talk) 08:21, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The description needs to mention the cap texture a bit earlier, but it's not clear whether the ridged texture is completely hidden by the gleba (looks from the picture like specimen are usually found with most of it gone)
Also I think the description needs to stick to the description (the cap is coated in a fould smellu, slimy subtance that is made of spores: the gleba) and move the reasons why down to ecology.

Was thinking about that myself. Done. Sasata (talk)

I think we can afford to describe the spore as elliptical rather than the overly technical "ellipsoid".
We've stated that P. indusiatus is associated with bamboo forests in Asia, so I'm not clear that mentioning the species for P. cinnabarinus is all that useful, plus Kuo says it's found in the americas and Australia too.

Removed the details, expanded the distribution. Hmmm, Kuo says that Dictyophora indusiata f. rosea sensu Guzmán, Montoya & Bandala = Phallus cinnabarinus; I wonder if that is the same sensu as Wright (1960) (in which case I could probably dump that straggling sentence at the end of description, or move it to taxonomy ...) Sasata (talk) 20:38, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lucida is a genus of Lepidoptera with nothing to do with flies. Either there's a typo in the original article or there's some homonymy. Maybe Lucilia? We'll need to dig into this one.

Good catch, appears to be a typo in the source ... "green bottle flies" (from source) = Lucilia (fixed) Sasata (talk) 20:24, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Since we are referring to the families of flies P. indusiatus attracts below, mentioning that Lucilia belongs to the Calliphoridae seems useful.

Done. Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Circéus (talk) 03:42, 30 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ecology and distribution

"typically found after heavy rains" feels odd. I feel saying outright that it grows when it rain (or whatever the technical formulation) would be smoother?

Is the problem perhaps the verb "found", and if so, perhaps "fruits" would be better? Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
- Yes, that is the kinda wording I was grasping for. Circéus (talk) 17:50, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Uses/Edibility

Rare "on the market" or however best to word it? The species is clearly not rare as such. "not abundant" is probably a better wording than "uncommon" too.

Is it better now? Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think some context for the "Bird's Nest Eight Immortals Soup" is needed. Is that a famous/notorious/mythic recipe? Similarly for Kissinger, more context would be good too. The species seems to be considered some sort of delicacy, and I think if we can state so it would be helpful.

Tried to add some more context to the bird soup. Don't know what else to say about the Kissinger meal without straying too far from the topic, but I added some links that show the importance of this visit in US history. Also mentioned explicitly that it's considered a delicacy and aphrodisiac. Sasata (talk) 06:55, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cultivation information might be worth separating more clearly from edibility/cultural aspects (or be acknowledged in the header).

Now in the header (I might end up expanding cultivation section slightly). Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't like mentioning authors that are not notable in the text. I think the second to last paragraph should start "A nutritional analysis of Nigerian specimens determined that [...]"'

Agree, done. Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You know I'm not in favor of sections with a single subsection, can we see if the "Uses" supersection is needed? Also the orgasm part might better belong under bioactive properties?

Done. Sasata (talk) 03:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bioactive properties

The statement that dictyoquinazols "belonging to a class of compounds known to be rare in nature" is unclear as to which class we are talking about (Quinazolines is the most likely I think, but I sure wouldn't bet on it) and is not found in any shape or form in Liu (2004), at least not that I found.

Your guess is correct; I moved the text so the attribution is correct. Sasata (talk) 07:51, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure the lengthy, overly technical discussion of the Unique RNase is all that useful. i mean, yes it relevant to fungi biochemistry/physiology, but I'm not sure it is pertinent in a section on Bioactive properties. Maybe relegate it to a simplified aside at the end of the section?

Ok, trimmed. Sasata (talk) 08:38, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The remark about Polyphenol fails to relate to the fact that polyphenols are a very well known class of antioxidants that is showing even in general literature nowadays, so it's a bit tangential unless there are some really novel ones involved. I think this emphasis should be reduced and a bit more given to albaflavenone. Here's a chemical structure for it if it can be useful.
I'll try rewriting part of the section. It has somewhat too much unfortunate waffly repetitiveness for a simple critique.

Circéus (talk) 21:08, 5 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think there's an overemphasis on polyphenols (~2 sentences in a 6-paragraph section). You could be right about the waffly repetitiveness though, and I'd welcome any additional changes that you think might would help. I added the structure of albaflavenone. I'm itching to get this submitted to FAC, so I think I'll cut out the Chinese name stuff to what I can source, and add more back later if I get a response from WP:China. Sasata (talk) 16:20, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Now submitted. Thanks again for your helpful critique Circeus. Still have to work a bit on the distribution section (range map), but I should have that done by tomorrow. Sasata (talk) 21:21, 13 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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