Dog Stinkhorns: Have You Seen Them?

Share this post:

Dog stinkhorns showing up in your yard

One of my coworkers sent me a picture of some weird looking growths in her garden areas. They rose quickly, arising with a red stalk and a brown tip and they stink. The common name for this organism is a Dog Stinkhorn. Fall is the traditional time when Stinkhorns will push up in gardens, landscape beds and even in lawns. They are in the mushroom family, but instead of relying on wind to carry its spores, this species produces a thick slime at the tip that attracts insects, including flies that carry the spores to other locations. Stinkhorns are common to North America. They sprout from an egg-shaped bulb that develops at the ground level or slightly below. It slowly pushes up the slender stalk that can be white, pink or orange in color. The slime that is produced at the tip smells like rotting flesh, which is a big attractant to many insect species. If your gardens or lawns are displaying Stinkhorns, take comfort in knowing that they have a very short life span and will mostly be gone the next day. Stinkhorns are not poisonous and I doubt any person or animal would be enticed to eat it due to the smell. They are fascinating to look at, but you have to be quick as they don’t last very long.

There really isn’t any control for Stinkhorns.

Stinkhorns are a fungi and actually serve a purpose by feeding on organic material and producing food for the organisms that live in the Soil Food Web of amoebas, protozoa, fungi, bacteria, ciliates, nematodes, etc. All these organisms are working together to develop a healthy soil for the plants. In doing some research on Stinkhorns, There is a great video of the life of a Stinkhorn. It is less than a minute long, but it shows how quickly it will develop and die. I found it fascinating and I hope you do as well. Check it out! If you have questions about things growing in your yard, contact your local Spring-Green for more information.