Dog Stinkhorns

Dog Stinkhorns, Mutinus caninus, aren’t easy to find. It’s not just that they like growing in overgrown areas, it’s that they don’t smell as terrible as the Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, which you can smell a long way off. They’re still quite pungent when you get close, though.

Flies are what they’re hoping to attract, but they’ve got me instead.

It’s great to find a fresh one before the flies have visited and helped themselves to the green slime on the end. It’s said that they smell like cat faeces, but I haven’t smelled enough of that to corroborate.

The original name of Mutinus caninus was Phallus caninus. I can’t say what the literal translation of that is, so let’s refer to it as Dog’s Lipstick, shall we?

I get a shot of it in-situ before I retreat and leave it to the flies.

They’ll love it.