Latticed Stinkhorn

Clathrus ruber is a species of fungus in the family Phallaceae, and the type species of the genus Clathrus. It is commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage.

The fungus is saprobic, feeding off decaying woody plant material, and is often found alone or in groups in leaf litter on garden soil, grassy places, or on woodchip garden mulches.

The fruit body initially appears like a whitish 'egg' that's attached to the ground at the base by cords called rhizomorphs (thickened cords of mycelia).

The egg has a delicate, leathery outer membrane enclosing the compressed lattice that surrounds a layer of dark olive-green to olive-brown spore-bearing slime called the gleba, which has a fetid odor that smells like rotting meat, which attracts flies and other insects to help disperse its spores.

As the egg ruptures and the fruit body expands, the gleba is carried upward on the inner surfaces of the spongy lattice, and the egg membrane remains as a volva (a cup-like structure at the base of a mushroom that is a remnant of the peridium that encloses the immature fruit bodies) around the base of the structure.

The color of the fruit body, which can range from pink to orange to red, results primarily from the carotenoid pigments lycopene and beta-carotene (the same pigments that give tomatoes and carrots their colour).

Although edibility for C. ruber has not been officially documented, its foul smell would dissuade most people from eating it. In general, stinkhorn mushrooms are considered edible when still in the egg stage, and are even considered delicacies in some parts of Europe and Asia, where they are pickled raw and sold in markets as "devil's eggs". Many cases of poisoning have been reported after ingesting the mature fruit body and most experts warn against consuming it.