Some stinkhorns are edible, but you may not want to eat them. Beware of the stench! Many people will probably smell a stinkhorn before they will even see one. True to its name, stinkhorns smell awful. Many are phallic-shaped, but others look like wiffle balls, Chinese lanterns, or even an octopus. Stinkhorns are basidiomycete fungi that come in several forms, either with unbranched stems or with branched stems and latticed structures. The stinkhorn hatches from an “egg.” The head of the mature fruiting body is covered with a layer of slime containing spores. Insects and other creatures that are attracted to the foul-smelling fungi come and eat the slime. When they do this, the slime sticks to their bodies, and the spores get dispersed elsewhere. Stinkhorns are found all over the world, especially in subtropical and tropical regions. In North America, stinkhorns appear during the summer and fall. They can literally sprout out of nowhere just overnight. Many people tend discover them in their own yard. Because of their disgusting appearance and odor, stinkhorns have become a nuisance because they are almost impossible to get rid of. Luckily, stinkhorns are not poisonous. They grow mostly in cultivated areas and mulch because they degrade wood. In some parts of the world, stinkhorns are considered a delicacy. However, many people who are all too familiar with its odor do not find these mushrooms very appetizing. Some oriental markets in the United States do sell packages of dried stinkhorns. In Germany, a gigantic stinkhorn called Phallus impudicus had such a strong smell of a dead corpse that it had initiated a murder investigation! Other popular stinkhorns are the Mutinus caninus (pictured), Lysurus mokusin, Dictyophora indusiata, and Phallus hadriani. Mutinus caninus (which has a red stem) is probably the best known of the stinkhorns.

--Ha Huynh