Stinkhorn fungus | The Wildlife Trusts (2024)

FAQs

What are true facts about the stinkhorn? ›

The pitted, bell-shaped cap is covered with olive-brown slime and has an offensive smell. The stinkhorn can be found in woods and gardens, and is associated with rotting wood. Fungi belong to their own kingdom and get their nutrients and energy from organic matter, rather than photosynthesis like plants.

Stinkhorns Are Beneficial

In your garden, stinkhorns break down materials such as mulch and make those nutrients available for plants. Stinkhorns do not harm landscape plants or grasses.

The fruiting of large numbers of stinkhorns attracts a high population of blow-flies (Calliphora and Lucilla breed on carrion); this ensures the rapid elimination of badger carcasses, removing a potential source of disease to the badger colony.

Remove underground stumps, dead roots, and sawdust left from grinding stumps. The fungus also grows on decomposing hardwood mulch, so replace old hardwood mulch with pine needles, straw, or chopped leaves. You might also consider using live groundcovers instead of mulch.

Toxicity. 'Stinkhorns' are not considered to be poisonous. No human fatalities have been recorded as resulting from consumption of members of this group. They are considered 'Noxious' for their foul odor and reported veterinary experience of dogs ingesting the mushrooms and having gastric irritation symptoms.

Luckily, they only live for a day, so the odor is not a long-lasting problem.

Most often the common stinkhorn is used for the treatment of tumours. It is known that it liquefies blood, increases the immune capacity and protects against certain infections; it is able to replace female hormones, and is therefore used in the treatment of myoma, ovarian cyst and mastopathy.

Uses of stinkhorn

The inner layer can be cut out with a knife and eaten raw – it is crisp and crunchy with a radish-like taste. In parts of France and Germany, young stinkhorns are eaten fresh, pickled and also in sausages, and the powdered fungus is said to be used as an aphrodisiac for cattle.

Stinkhorns can be found in lawns, around the base of dead trees, or in flowerbeds mulched with wood chips. They are commonly found near uprooted trees, near decayed logs or in humus. They are produced during wet, cool periods in late summer and fall. They are not harmful and no control is necessary.

Although the stinkhorns may smell offensive, they are not poisonous to humans or pets. Stinkhorn fungi will not harm your pets or any other plants in their vicinity.

Are stinkhorn poisonous to dogs? ›

Although they are not known to be seriously poisonous, these are definitely not delectable fungi. Several people have reported their dogs being very sick after eating mature Dog Stinkhorns, and so it's most likely that any person eating mature specimens would suffer a similar fate.

In Massachusetts, the stinkhorn was known as a 'death baby', and its occurrence near the house was considered as a sign of imminent death in the family.

Stinkhorns, Phallus hadriani and P.

Their cap overhangs the hollow stem like morels. However, they are more akin to a foam Nerf dart, spongey and foamy. Not like the more delicate stem of a morel.

Stinkhorns are saprobes, digesting all manner of organic debris, and grow well in wood chip habitat or other composted areas. They prefer to live in moist, protected locations. They are somewhat invasive, and can take over landscapes, making outdoor activities inhospitable during the fruiting season.

Flies consume a fetid slime for nutrition and disperse the mushroom's spores.

Taxonomic history

The Dune Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani, was described in 1798 by French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1757 - 1808), who gave it the scientific name Phallus hadriani (a binomial name that was subsequently sanctioned by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in his Synopsis Methodica Fungorum of 1801).

Stinkhorn is edible, but only at the egg stage when the smell is less strong. The inner layer can be cut out with a knife and eaten raw – it is crisp and crunchy with a radish-like taste.

Flies are attracted to the cap of the mushroom by aromatic compounds emanating from a thick slime that flies and other insects drink.