A slender orange stinkhorn that rises from a whitish egg and carries foul-smelling brown spore slime on a small conical tip clearly set off from the stalk. It is common in Europe. In North America it is easily confused with the more common Mutinus elegans and M. ravenelii, and MushroomExpert.com considers confirmed North American records rare.
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Habitat
Saprobic; in small groups on woody debris or in leaf litter in deciduous and coniferous woods, and on wooded roadsides; summer to late autumn.
Distribution
Common in Europe, including Britain; also recorded from Iran, Turkey, China and the Canary Islands. Its North American status is disputed: Wikipedia calls it common in eastern North America, but MushroomExpert.com finds documented North American specimens only from Ohio (a 1907 Lloyd photograph from Chillicothe and a recent Knox County collection), considers it uncommon and possibly limited there, and attributes other North American reports it reviewed to M. elegans, M. ravenelii or Phallus rugulosus.
Characteristics
Egg: whitish, 2-4 cm high, 1.5-3 cm wide; sliced, it shows the orange stalk and brownish slime forming inside. Stalk: 6-16 cm tall when mature and 1-2 cm thick at the widest point, pocked, bright to pale orange, its base in a white volva up to 4.5 cm high. Tip: conical, distinctly set off from the stalk and well under one-fourth of the total height, bumpy and orange under the brown to olive-brown spore slime; odor foul while the slime is present. Spores: 5-7 x 1-1.5 um, cylindric, smooth (MushroomExpert.com).
