No. 11 · White & Cream
Veiled Lady
Phallus indusiatus
“The mushroom in a lace dress”
A slender white stem wearing a delicate lace skirt that unfurls in a few hours. One of the most elegant fungi in the tropics, and a delicacy in Chinese cooking.
Fun fact!Its whole lace skirt, called an indusium, unfolds in just a few hours, usually before dawn.
- Where in the world
- Tropical Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia
- Home
- Rich soil in forests, gardens and bamboo groves
- When to look
- Rainy season
- Size
- 10–25 cm tall
Picture a tall white mushroom with a dark, bell-shaped cap, wearing a long net skirt so fine it looks like crochet. That is the veiled lady, sometimes called the bamboo fungus or bridal veil fungus, and it is one of the most photographed fungi in the tropics.
A fast performance
The veiled lady starts life as a round, white “egg” half buried in the soil. When it is ready, usually at night after rain, the egg splits and a hollow stem shoots upward. Over the next few hours the lace skirt, called the indusium, slowly drops down from under the cap and spreads out like a crinoline. By the next afternoon, the show is often over.
Clever spore spreading
The cap is covered in a dark green, sticky slime full of spores. It has a strong smell that attracts flies and other insects. They land, feed and fly away with spores on their legs, carrying them to new places. The bright white lace may also help insects find the mushroom in the dim forest.
In the kitchen
The veiled lady is edible and has been prized in Chinese cooking for centuries. The smelly cap and the egg are removed, and the stem and lace skirt are dried. Sold as “bamboo fungus”, it is added to soups and stir-fries, where it soaks up broth and stays pleasantly crunchy.