Another Fungus

Here's another odd-looking kind of "mushroom" that has been coming up in different parts of my yard for several years.

I posted this photo on iNaturalist and was told that it is lantern stinkhorn (Lysurus mokusin). I first noticed this fungus in my garden in 2015 and took the photo below at that time.



You can see that the fresher mushroom is covered with flies. I smelled it to see if it stinks, and it does have a bit of a poop smell, but not real strong. Since fungi are not flowering plants and do not require pollination, I'm not sure about the function of the odor. Perhaps the visiting insects help disperse the spores. As I mentioned before, I take the presence of these fungi in my garden as a very positive sign because fungi and green plants have such an important symbiotic relationship.