Seriously, What Is This Thing?

It was July 2022, and I had discovered something peculiar near a lake in northern Minnesota. Lying close to the edge of the sea was a fleshy, sausage-shaped mass, dark and covered with spots. It was half alien, half rotting mushroom.

Its skin was shiny and rubbery, covered with leathery patches. The smell was strong — like rotting vegetation — and the texture was weirdly meaty. I took pictures and began digging for answers.

Closer Look at the Spotted Lake Root

The thing was in some way inhuman. Its appearance prompted guesses from marine life to mushrooms. After consulting with your experts and some in the community, I discovered that it was a water lily rhizome, the meaty root of a Nymphaea plant.

The dark spots were leaf and root scars —  where pads and roots had once been attached. As these rhizomes die, separate or rot, the scarred tissue darkens and becomes elevated, hence the wierd form.

Water Lilies: Below the Surface

Their thick, rooted rhizomes in the floor of the lake are ideal growth areas. It is the underground stems which serve to support the plant and to conserve reservoirs of nutrients. It’s possible that pieces of it break off and wash ashore over time. That’s when they are at their most visible — and their most bizarre.

The specimen I discovered had probably broken off, rotted, and and washed onto shore after a storm. The jellylike figure, weird streak and decay made a job of interpretation simple enough.

Why It Looks So Unsettling

The shape, the texture, the smell is something biological, almost animal. The black nodules resemble fungi or marine life. It’s this unfamiliar way of presenting that sets people on edge.

But this is all part of the plant’s normal life cycle. It holds up the lily, the dies, feeding back into the lake.

What to Do If You Find One

• Don’t panic. It’s plant matter.
• Do not handle it when decomposing. Bacterial and odorous can be fierce.
• Photograph for ID.
• Leave it where it is. It will break down naturally.

Final Thoughts

Other Name: Rich Root of Spotted Lake lily. And when it is exposed, it exhibits the stranger side of a familiar plant. And so what had started as a lakeside curiosity wound up being a lesson in how surprising and weird the most common