Common stinkhorn

We treat it as inedible. The egg is reportedly eaten in parts of Europe, but sources disagree and the egg can be confused with a death cap egg.

No deadly toxin is known. The danger is confusing its egg with a death cap egg.

Both have honeycomb-pitted heads. The stinkhorn is slimy, smells of carrion and has a jelly-filled egg remnant at the base; the morel is dry, odourless and appears in spring.

The slimy spore mass on the head smells of carrion to attract flies, which eat it and spread the spores.

Once the egg splits, the stem stretches to 10–25 cm within a few hours, and the mature fungus collapses within a day or two.

Most records are from wooded parts of Istanbul, with others from Düzce, Kırklareli and Bolu.

It does no harm to plants; it breaks down rotting wood and roots. If the smell bothers you, remove it with gloves; keep children and pets from eating it.

The young stage of the stinkhorn: a soft white ball, often half buried, with a jelly layer inside around the folded stalk. Cut in half, it differs from a puffball (solid white) and from a young Amanita (outline of cap and gills).

We lift the eggs and fruit bodies with a trowel and put them in the bin. They live on buried wood and mulch, so removing old wood chips reduces them; they do not harm healthy plants and disappear on their own in a day or two.

Its tip is covered in a slimy olive-brown spore mass that smells of rotting meat. The smell draws flies, which carry the spores away. Stinky mushroom and stink mushroom are informal names for it.

Its scientific name, Phallus impudicus, refers to that shape: a white, hollow stem with a capped tip rising out of an egg. The shape lifts the spore mass up to where flies can reach it, and other species in the genus Phallus share it.

Besides the common stinkhorn, there are the dog stinkhorn (Mutinus caninus), with a thin orange-red tip, the red cage fungus (Clathrus ruber), the devil's fingers or octopus stinkhorn (Clathrus archeri) and the netted stinkhorn (Phallus indusiatus) of the tropics. All share the foul-smelling spore slime.

Ravenel's stinkhorn (Phallus ravenelii) is a North American relative of the common stinkhorn with a smoother, granular cap. In Turkey we see the common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus), which has a netted cap and a strong smell.

The anemone stinkhorn (Aseroe rubra) has red, star-like arms on a white stem and comes from Australia and the Pacific; it has spread with garden mulch to some other regions. Like other stinkhorns, it smells of rotting meat and is not eaten.

In our calendar, common stinkhorn season runs May–Nov. The common stinkhorn appears from summer to late autumn; Turkish records peak in May and October–December.

In broadleaf and conifer woods, parks and gardens, on soil with rotting wood and roots. It appears singly or scattered, and is often smelled before it is seen.

Our map data (GBIF and iNaturalist) holds 40 Turkish records: 34 from Istanbul and the rest from Düzce, Kırklareli and Bolu, concentrated in the forests of Marmara and the western Black Sea.

Common stinkhorn can be confused with morel (Morchella esculenta, edible species), common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum, edible species), death cap (Amanita phalloides, deadly) and dog stinkhorn (Mutinus caninus, inedible). Look-alikes are compared on this page.

In Turkish, common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) is called Pis kokulu boynuz mantarı; other local names include boynuz mantarı.