Stinkhorn

Where it grows

The stinkhorn fruits from summer through autumn in broadleaf woodland, well-mulched gardens, and parks, springing rapidly from a half-buried white egg that you can step on without realising. The mature fruitbody can rise from the soil in a matter of hours.

How to recognise it

The unmistakable smell is usually the first sign — a powerful stench of carrion that can be detected dozens of metres away. The fruitbody itself is a tall white spongy hollow cylinder topped by a dark olive-green slimy cap. The slime is the spore-bearing gleba, which is rapidly cleaned off by flies that come for the meaty smell and disperse the spores on their feet.

Edibility & cautions

Inedible as a mature stinkhorn — the smell is overwhelming and the slime unpalatable. However the young egg stage, sliced open, has a firm white jelly that is eaten in parts of central and eastern Europe as “witches’ egg,” sliced raw or pickled; the taste is mild and radish-like. There are no toxic look-alikes, only related stinkhorns. The smell is harmless to humans but obvious enough that nobody mistakes the species.