This mushroom first appears as an egg, partly submerged in the surrounding substrate with a jelly like feel. The mushroom then (slowly) bursts out and forms the very phallic looking fungi. The cap is covered in a sticky substance, called a gleba containing the spores, to which flies seem very attracted. As they devour this, they get covered in spores, which then get a free ride to a new place to grow.
You can often smell a stinkhorn before you see it!
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Stinkhorn
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Stinkhorn
| Mushroom Type | |
| Common Names | Stinkhorn (EN), Cingroen (CY), Sromotnik Smrodliwy (PL), Erdei Szömörcsög (HU) |
| Scientific Name | Phallus impudicus |
| Season Start | Jun |
| Season End | Nov |
| Average Mushroom height (CM) | 25 |
| Average Cap width (CM) | 5 |
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Cap
At first appearing smooth and olive grey brown to black, this is what’s called the gleba, which contains the spores. As soon as flies find this mushroom they devour and get covered in it, leaving a white honeycomb like cap. In the adjacent image the gleba has been half devoured.
Stem
Hollow, white and like spongey honeycomb or polystyrene.
Bulbous Base
Has a very bulbous almost volva like base, that when in the egg stage, contains a small Stinkhorn fruitbody, surrounded by a slimy jelly.
Flesh
Soft and rubbery in the cap, like polystyrene in the stem and jelly like in the ‘egg’.
Habitat
Anywhere with rotting wood present.
Possible Confusion
Can look a bit like a Black Morel or False Morel but the overwhelming stench of the Stinkhorn should save confusion.
Can also look like a Puffball, Earthball, pictured, or Amanita egg when in the egg stage, but Puffballs are soft, spongy and pure white inside, Earthballs are tough and usually purple or black inside, Amanitas at the egg stage will have a small fruiting body inside, but it is not surrounded by slime and again the smell should help you avoid any confusion.
Spore Print
Pale yellow. Oblong. As the spores are mixed in the olive grey gleba, it is not possible to do a spore print with this mushroom.
Taste / Smell
At the egg stage, this mushroom is reported as edible. The tough cuticle in the egg does taste a bit like radish, but we don’t eat this mushroom as the smell is putrid and most unappetizing.
Frequency
Common.
Other Facts
This mushroom has been reported to have aphrodisiac qualities, but this is purely down to it’s phallic look, rather than anything scientific.
Victorians were disgusted by the sight of this mushroom and used to go out in the morning with a club and flatten them to save young women’s embarrassment.
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