Stink Horn Fungus attended by Bluebodied Blowflies

Description:

Red stalk with a separate brown-black head which produces spore slime. The spore slime has a strong smell of decaying flesh and attracts carrion-loving insects which aid in spore dispersal.

Habitat:

They are very common on wood or bark-chip mulch in gardens, and on deep litter on the rainforest floor.

Notes:

Seen in bark mulch in the Tamworth Botanic Gardens. There was a strong smell of 'dead animal' in the vicinity and this fungus was covered in flies. I shooed the flies away to get a better look at what they were crawling on. At first I didn't believe it could be a fungus and had the horrible thought that it was some sort of dead thing sticking out of the ground!! I still couldn't believe that it was the fungus that smelled that badly until doing the research at home. Thanks to ulvalactuca77 for setting me on the right track for the ID. Resources consulted: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/poisonsinfo... http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/ecology-inv... http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/images-capt... http://www.eukalypt.org/fungi_tertiary_p... http://australianfungi.blogspot.com.au/2...