Aseroë rubra

Aseroë rubra Labill. (illustrated 75% life size) Fruit body oval white ‘egg’ broken open by expanding pink trunk normally up to 10cm in height, with ‘tentacles’ grouped in pairs, of strong reddish colour, glebal disk showing dark, sticky, spore mass. Flesh smell fetid. Habitat on woodland litter on acid soil, native to New Zealand, Australia, and other areas in the southern hemisphere; late summer to autumn. Very rare, with only one record outside greenhouses, presumably imported on garden plants. Not edible. Note thanks to Geoffrey Kibby for allowing me to use this photograph.