A large stinkhorn whose pitted, slime-covered head carries a short white, lacy skirt (indusium) that hangs about halfway down the stem. It hatches from a whitish to pinkish 'egg' attached to thick rhizomorphs. It is the common skirted stinkhorn of eastern North America.
Reported edible only in the unopened 'egg' stage; mature fruit bodies are foul-smelling and not eaten. Caution: young Amanita buttons, including the deadly amatoxin-containing A. bisporigera and A. phalloides, also look like white eggs in the soil. Always cut an egg lengthwise. A stinkhorn egg shows a gelatinous layer and an outline of the pitted head and stalk; an Amanita button shows the outline of a cap with gills and a stem.
Help build this page
This page grows with the community. Here is what it is still missing:
Photos. None yet — moderators review each photo before it appears.Sign in to add a photo
Sightings. Spotted it in the wild? Add it to the map.Open the map
Strains. No public strains of this species on WeMush yet.
Track Your Own Netted Stinkhorn Grows
Join WeMush to log cultivation data, discover strains, and connect with fellow growers.
Never eat a wild mushroom based on a web page — confirm with an expert.
Habitat
Saprobic; single or in small groups on the ground in hardwood forests and in gardens, lawns, flowerbeds, wood chips and other cultivated or landscaped ground; summer and fall.
Distribution
Widespread in eastern North America, especially the Southeast; originally described from South Carolina. Also reliably known from Brazil, Africa, China, Japan and Great Britain, where it was new in 2012. Many other European records may be misidentified Phallus impudicus var. togatus.
Characteristics
Egg: 3-8 cm high and 2-4 cm wide, egg-shaped to nearly round, attached to whitish to purplish rhizomorphs; in section shows a gelatinous layer around the developing head and stalk. Head: 3-5 cm high, broadly conic to bell-shaped, deeply net-pitted, covered with foul-smelling olive-brown to dark brown spore slime (gleba), with a perforated tip. Indusium: white, net-like, with relatively small holes and thick walls, hanging from under the head roughly halfway down the stem. Stem: 8-13 cm high and 2-3 cm thick, white, hollow, spongy-pocketed, with a sack-like volva 2-5 cm high at the base. Odor: strong and fetid. Spores: 3-4.2 x 1-1.5 um, subcylindric, smooth, hyaline (MushroomExpert.com; Wikipedia).
