Elegant Stinkhorn, Mutinus elegans. Note the white, egg-like immature stinkhorns around the more mature stalk.
Stinkhorns are a type of fungus which produce a foul-scented, rod-shaped mushroom. They belong to the order Phallales. Their method of reproduction is different than most mushrooms, which use the air to spread their spores. Stinkhorns instead produce a sticky spore mass on their tip which has an odor of carrion, dung, or other things that attract flies. These land on the stinkhorn, getting the spore mass on their legs and inadvertently carrying it to other locations.
It is unknown whether most stinkhorns are edible or not. Few people have the urge to consume such small, foul-smelling mushrooms.
Species:
Phallus impudicus, The Common Stinkhorn[1] (http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/phallus_impudicus.html)
Phallus hadriani, (sometimes considered as a subspicies of Phallus impudicus)
An analysis of genera of Phallales and Lycoperdales having one, two and three species suggests the same conclusion: about half such genera in each of the two orders are known near the Pacific.
It is perhaps even more noteworthy that of eleven monotypic genera of Phallales, ten are restricted to warm and relatively small areas in America, Asia or Africa, the eleventh to New Zealand.
One may conclude that many Phallales had a rather limited distribution before man began to travel; in other words, that they are influenced by climate and probably by having had less time than many other fungi in which to travel by their own devices.
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