Stinkhorn Mushroom in Yard: ID, Smell and Removal

A stinkhorn is a fungus that spreads its spores with insects instead of wind. UF/IFAS Extension explains that stinkhorns cannot release spores into the air, so they carry a slimy spore mass called the gleba at the top of the stalk and advertise it with an odour compared to decomposing flesh, rotting faeces and sewage. Blowflies, beetles, bees and slugs feed on the gleba and carry spores away on and in their bodies.

The practical consequence in a yard is that the smell arrives first, often strong enough to be blamed on a dead animal or a broken sewer line before anyone finds the mushroom.

UF/IFAS describes the life cycle in three stages: small round white eggs form in soil or mulch, attached to the substrate by white cords called rhizomorphs; the gleba develops inside the egg; and the mature fruiting body can emerge very quickly, sometimes in a matter of minutes. Stalks are usually white, red or pink.

NC State Extension records the same pattern in North Carolina yards, describing the immature stage as dragon-egg-like structures in mulch and damp decomposing material.

UF/IFAS names Phallus and Clathrus as the two genera most often encountered in Florida, with Mutinus and Lysurus also present. NC State lists the column stinkhorn, the elegant stinkhorn and Ravenel's stinkhorn as the ones it sees.

• Elegant stinkhorn, Mutinus elegans. Eggs are small white balls 0.5 to 1 inch (1.2 to 2.5 cm) across. The stalk is 4 to 7 inches (10 to 18 cm) tall and 0.5 to 1 inch wide, rough, tapered at both ends, hollow and spongy, ranging from orange through pink-orange to pink-red, with a whitish tough wrinkled volva at the base. The olive-green to dull-green slimy spore mass covers the upper half or third. It is sometimes confused with Mutinus caninus, the dog stinkhorn.
• Ravenel's stinkhorn, Phallus ravenelii. Eggs are whitish to lilac, oval to pear-shaped, 1.4 to 2.4 inches (3.5 to 6 cm) tall and 1.3 to 1.8 inches (3 to 4.5 cm) wide. The stalk is 3 to 7 inches (7.5 to 18 cm) tall and 0.75 to 1.5 inches thick, spongy, hollow and pitted, rosy red to white. The olive green-brown spore mass sits on the upper quarter of the stalk under a distinct cap.

For plants, no. NC State Extension states they do not harm plants, trees, shrubs or bedding plants. They are saprophytic, feeding on dead and decomposing plant material, and UF/IFAS describes them as playing an important beneficial role as decomposers in yards and native ecosystems. They form on wood chips, leaf litter, decaying stumps and soil.

On toxicity, UF/IFAS states that all the species it describes are considered non-toxic, and notes one exception worth knowing: there have been reports of poisoning in pigs after consumption of the columned stinkhorn, Clathrus columnatus. UF/IFAS explicitly does not recommend consuming stinkhorns, and warns that anyone eating any fungus must identify it correctly to species because several deadly species exist in Florida and worldwide.

This site takes the same line and goes no further: nothing here tells you a wild mushroom is safe to eat. If a child or a pet has eaten part of any yard mushroom, including something you believe is a stinkhorn, make the call rather than deciding for yourself. UF/IFAS itself directs readers to the American Association of Poison Control Centers hotline, 1-800-222-1222, when there are concerns about a child or pet eating a stinkhorn. For dogs and cats, call your veterinarian or ASPCA Animal Poison Control at (888) 426-4435.

There is no spray for this. NC State Extension states there is no way to get rid of stinkhorns and that fungicides and disinfectants are of no use; removal by hand is what helps with the odour.

What works:

• Dig out the eggs. This is the highest-value step, because an egg removed never produces the smell. Look for white or lilac balls half-buried in mulch, usually attached by white cords.
• Remove mature stalks the same day and bag them in household waste. They collapse into slime within a day or two either way.
• Stir or replace the mulch. Stinkhorns form in wood chips and leaf litter, so turning the mulch discourages them and replacing old hardwood mulch with pine needles, straw, chopped leaves or composted pine bark is the standard recommendation.
• Accept a season. NC State's frank version is that once they appear, you close the windows and wait.

Three different things in a yard look like white eggs, and one of them matters a great deal.

• Stinkhorn egg. Cut it open and you find a gelatinous layer around a compressed, folded stalk, with the dark gleba already formed inside. White cords attach it to the mulch below.
• Young puffball. Uniform white all the way through, marshmallow-like, with no outline of a cap or stem, as the Missouri Department of Conservation describes for the giant puffball.
• Amanita egg. A developing mushroom silhouette inside — cap, stem and gills forming. Because the genus includes the death cap and the destroying angels, this is the reason the lengthwise cut is a standard check.

The full comparison, including earthballs, is on white ball mushroom in yard.

To record a stinkhorn properly: photograph it whole in place, photograph the base with the volva, note the mulch or soil it is in, and cut an egg to photograph the cross-section. Photograph it with the app and it identifies it.

Stinkhorns are eaten in some places, mostly at the egg stage, but none of the sources below recommends it and this site does not either. For the common stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, the Woodland Trust calls it edible only at the egg stage, when the smell is weaker, with a crunchy, radish-like inner layer; Wild Food UK reports the egg stage as edible but says its own writers do not eat it because of the smell; the Natural History Society of Maryland notes the eggs are reportedly eaten in some Irish and English cooking. UF/IFAS Extension goes further on the facts: it says the Florida stinkhorns it describes are not considered poisonous, that stinkhorns are eaten in salads, soups, sausages and pickles, and that Phallus indusiatus is grown commercially in China as a delicacy. Yet the same UF/IFAS authors write that they do not recommend eating stinkhorns, and that anyone eating a fungus must identify it to species because deadly species grow in the same places.

Three reasons for caution:

• The egg is the stage most easily confused with a deadly Amanita egg. The Natural History Society of Maryland warns that death cap eggs resemble stinkhorn eggs. Cut lengthwise, a stinkhorn egg shows jelly around a folded stalk and a dark greenish spore mass; an Amanita egg shows a gilled mushroom outline.
• The species eaten in Europe is not necessarily the one in your yard. The stinkhorns NC State Extension sees are the column, elegant and Ravenel's stinkhorns, and UF/IFAS records a report of poisoning in pigs after they ate the columned stinkhorn, Clathrus columnatus.
• The red cage stinkhorn, Clathrus ruber, is generally listed as inedible or poisonous, and Wikipedia cites an 1854 poisoning report.

If a child or pet eats part of one, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or your vet.

A witch's egg is the egg stage of a stinkhorn, before the stalk bursts out. The Natural History Society of Maryland describes the inside as having the consistency of a skinless lychee: translucent, wet white pulp. The Woodland Trust gives the common stinkhorn's egg as around 4 to 8 cm across, and Wild Food UK describes it as partly buried, jelly-like to the touch, with a small stinkhorn inside surrounded by slimy jelly. The Woodland Trust notes the eggs can be found at any time of year but tend to stay dormant until summer, then fruit into late autumn.

Speed is the surprise. The Natural History Society of Maryland writes that stinkhorns can grow up to 6 inches in one hour, so an egg found in the evening can be a full, smelly stinkhorn by morning. Digging out eggs is the most effective removal step, described in the section on getting rid of them above.

No. The Woodland Trust describes the common stinkhorn as very common in the UK, Ireland and most of mainland Europe, in woodland and gardens. Wikipedia records the red cage stinkhorn, native to southern and central Europe, on every continent except Antarctica. In the US, UF/IFAS Extension says stinkhorns are most diverse in tropical habitats and especially common in the mulch of home gardens in Florida and across the Gulf Coast; there, Phallus and Mutinus appear mostly from June to September and the columned stinkhorn in December to February. NC State Extension links them to hardwood mulch. Individual stinkhorns are short-lived: UF/IFAS notes some fruit at night and last only about twelve hours, which makes them seem rarer than they are.

For the plants, there is no need: NC State Extension states they do not harm plants, trees, shrubs or bedding plants, and UF/IFAS Extension, which calls them beneficial decomposers, actually recommends leaving them to live out their short life cycle, since eradication is nearly impossible. Remove them for the smell, and where children or dogs could eat an egg or a stalk. UF/IFAS says the most effective method is to dig up visible eggs and mature stinkhorns, bag them and put them in the rubbish, and that raking mulch where they fruit disrupts the mycelium and may reduce future fruiting. NC State suggests replacing hardwood mulch with composted pine bark. Fungicides do not help (both sources).

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Nothing on this page says a wild mushroom is safe to eat. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.