Synonym: Phallus volvatus; Phallus foetidus; Morellus impudicus; Ithyphallus impudicus.
Name: impudicus in Latin menas "shameless" or "immodest".
English: Common Stinkhorn; Stinkhorn Fungus; Wood witch; Witch’s egg; Orgasm mushroom; Pricke mushroom; Fungus virilis penis effigie; Hollanders workingtoole; Phallus hollandicus.
German: Gemeine Stinkmorchel.
Region: Europe, North America; Asia, China, Taiwan, India, Costa Rica, Iceland, Tanzania, southeast Australia.
Habitat: rich in wood debris, forests and mulched gardens.
Use: edibility not recommended; at the egg stage, pieces of the inner layer (the receptaculum) can be cut out with a knife and eaten raw. They are crisp and crunchy with an attractive radishy taste; enjoyed and eaten in France and Germany, where it may be sold fresh or pickled and used in sausages; similar species are consumed in China.
Culture: to make fighting bull them stronger in Montenegro; aphrodisiac; symbol for uncontrollable sexuality.
Content: methanethiol, hydrogen sulfide, linalool, trans-ocimene, phenylacetaldehyde, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl trisulfide.
DD:
Sulphur.
Use: love potion.
Source: Kalieniczensko.
MycologyPhallus impudicus is a saprotrophic fungus easily recognisable by the foul odor and its phallic shape. The fruiting structure is tall and white with a slimy, dark olive colored conical head, the gleba, containing the spores, transported by insects which are attracted by the odor like carrion. The immature fruiting body is whitish or pinkish, egg-shaped, and typically ± 5 cm tall and ± 4 cm wide. On the outside is a thick whitish volva, also known as the peridium, covering the olive-colored gelatinous gleba. The eggs become fully grown stinkhorns very rapidly, over a day or two. The mature fruiting body is ± 20 cm tall and 4 cm in diameter, topped with a conical cap, ± 3 cm high that is covered with the greenish-brown slimy gleba. In older fungi the slime is eventually removed, exposing a bare yellowish pitted and ridged surface. The spores are elliptical to oblong. The dispersal of spores is by flies and other insects.