Ecology and Distribution
The range of Phallus indusiatus is tropical, including Africa (Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zaire) South America (Brazil Guyana, and Venezuela), Central America (Costa Rica), and Tobago. In North America, its range is restricted to Mexico. Asian localities include Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Southern China, Japan, and Taiwan. It has also been collected in Australia.
Like all Phallus species, P. indusiatus is saprobic—deriving nutrients from breaking down wood and plant organic matter. The fruit bodies grow singly or in groups in disturbed ground and among wood chips. In Asia, it grows among bamboo forests, and typically fruits after heavy rains. The method of reproduction for stinkhorns, including P. indusiatus, is different from most agaric mushrooms, which forcibly eject their spores. Stinkhorns instead produce a sticky spore mass that has a sharp, sickly-sweet odor of carrion. The cloying stink of mature fruit bodies—detectable from a considerable distance—is attractive to certain insects. Species recorded visiting the fungus include stingless bees of the genus Trigona, and flies of the families Drosophilidae and Muscidae. Insects assist in spore dispersal by consuming the gleba and depositing excrement containing intact spores to germinate elsewhere. Although the function of the indusium is not known definitively, it may visually entice insects not otherwise attracted by the odour, and serve as a ladder for crawling insects to reach the gleba.
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