Dog Stinkhorn

Dog Stinkhorn - Mutinus caninus

Description

The elongated 'egg' is usually buried and hard to find.  The fruit-bodies that emerge are slender and tinged with orange, and the split 'egg' may be evident as a volva-like structure at the base.  The spore-mass or gleba is olive-black and smelling of rotten meat.  It attacts flies that then carry the spores away on their legs, revealing the orange honeycombed head underneath. 

Similar Species

The Common Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, is much larger and more smelly.

Identification difficulty
Recording advice

Photograph in habitat; note habitat and substrate

Habitat

Rotten coniferous or deciduous wood, woody debris, stumps, woodchip; in parks, gardens, woodlands

When to see it

July to early October

VC55 Status

Status in Leicestershire and Rutland not known.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records