Stinky mushrooms

If you go for a walk in the forest, and your nose is suddenly hit by the powerful stench of death and deterioration, as if there is a ripe carcass lying between the trees, then maybe you have actually found a dead animal, otherwise you have probably found an example of the peculiar stinkhorn fungus. Stinkhorn have developed a unique technique for spreading their spores, they don’t just smell like half-rotten meat, but also look like it. This is just perfect for attracting flies, that love to roll around in the spores and get covered in them, and then spread the spores to other areas when they fly off again.

It is difficult to imagine that something so smelly can also be a delicacy, but edible-mushroom experts say that immature stinkhorns that haven’t opened yet (they are lying in the forest floor, and look like a strange egg, often called a witch’s egg) actually taste wonderful.