Phallus ravenelii

During our explorations of the woodland garden this morning while waiting for the school bus, we encountered a cluster of the very naughty looking Phallus ravenelii, commonly known as Ravenel's stinkhorn.

These mushrooms commonly grow in large clusters and are noted for their foul odour and phallic shape when mature. 

It appears from August to October, often in mulched areas. The fruit body emerges from a lavender coloured "egg" to form a tall, cylindrical, hollow and spongy white stalk with a bell-shaped cap. 

The remains of the egg persist as a white to pink or lilac volva at the base of the stalk.

The cap is covered in a foul-smelling olive-green spore slime, which attracts insects that help to spread the spores.  The fungus is named after Henry William Ravenel, a botanist who first discovered it in 1846, though it remained undescribed until 1873. 

While, it is considered to be an edible mushroom while in its egg form we did not eat it.  I have plenty of wine caps in my mushroom patch to keep us satisfied.  Instead, I transferred a bunch of the "eggs" into a container placed on our back deck so we can watch the stinkhorns "hatch" over the next few days.

Nature is amazing.  I love that we can find stuff like this in our own front yard.

Citations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_ravenelii

Special thanks to Euan MacDonald on my FB Mushroom ID group for helping me figure out what exactly this crazy mushroom was.