Elegant Stinkhorn

Description:

Beautifully colored reddish-orange, spike-shaped fruiting body. These can be found growing singly or in groups in leaf litter, woods and mulch where they work as decomposers. The greenish, slimy looking substance on the upper portion of the fruiting body is where this fungus produces its spores. The odor attracts flies and other insects, who then spread the spores to other places.

Habitat:

Temperate forest. Nolin Lake State Park, Kentucky.

Notes:

You can see a fly attending the smelly, spore buffet in the second photo.