Phallus (fungus)

Taxonomy

The genus was first written about by the Dutch botanist Hadrianus Junius in a 1564 booklet about the penis-shaped organism. He says:

... I am not sure that our Phallus falls within the class of the fungi. I will not definitely decide to place it there because I do not want to make a judgment before others who know more about the matter. The lightness, however, and looseness of the substance and (a necessary condition for the existence of sponges) the sour sap of the moist earth where it was born, all bear witness that it belongs to the family of the fungi. However, the folds and creases, which do not exist here, but do among fungi, bear witness against it. There is also no trace of the cap that is normally connected to the stalk. Here the hat takes the place of the cap, and it can be removed without damage. Moreover, the site where it lives also argues against it, because this plant can only be found in dunes, and only there where old marram grass grows. Fungi, on the other hand, as stated clearly by authors, live in swampy, dirty, and rotting moist places, such as close to the roots of oak trees.

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus used the genus name Phallus in his Species Plantarum; the named was later sanctioned by Christian Hendrik Persoon when he used it in his 1801 Synopsis Methodica Fungorum.

Some authors have considered the presence of an indusium (a lacy "skirt" that hangs beneath the cap) to be an important taxonomic characteristic, and have placed taxa with indusia in a separate genus Dictyophora. More recent publications suggest that there are close morphological similarities in Phallus species with and without an indusium, so the trend has been to merge Dictyophora into Phallus; the online taxonomic databases Index Fungorum and MycoBank consider Dictyophora synonymous with Phallus.

According to the German mycologist Hanns Kreisel, who surveyed the genus in 1996, there are 33 species. Of these, 3 species are limited to the New World, 18 to the Old World, and another are 10 found in both hemispheres. His treatment divides the genus into five subgenera: Aporophallus; Itajahya; Endophallus; Satyrus; and Phallus. Spanish mycologist Francisco D. Calonge recognized 25 species in 2005, while according to the 2008 Dictionary of the Fungi, there are 18 species. More recent proposed species include P. maderensis (2008), P. luteus (2009), P. drewesii (2009), and P. calongei (2009).

Species

1. Phallus atrovolvatus – Stinkhorn fungus from Costa Rica
2. Phallus aurantiacus – Stinkhorn fungus from Nigeria
3. Phallus callichrous – Stinkhorn fungus from South America
4. Phallus calongei – Stinkhorn fungus from Pakistan
5. Phallus celebicus – Stinkhorn fungus from India
6. Phallus cinnabarinus – Stinkhorn fungus from Taiwan
7. Phallus coronatus – Species of fungus – Vietnam
8. Phallus drewesii – Stinkhorn fungus from São Tomé
9. Phallus duplicatus – Species of stinkhorn fungus
10. Phallus flavidus – Stinkhorn fungus from the Seychelles
11. Phallus flavocostatus – Stinkhorn fungus from East Asia
12. Phallus formosanus – Species of fungus
13. Phallus glutinolens – Stinkhorn fungus from Brazil
14. Phallus granulosodenticulatus – Species of fungus
15. Phallus hadriani – Dune stinkhorn or sand stinkhorn fungus
16. Phallus haitangensis – Species of Agaricomycetes description 2016, Yunnan Province
17. Phallus impudicus – Fungus known as the common stinkhorn
18. Phallus indusiatus – Widespread species of stinkhorn fungus Also known as bamboo fungus, bamboo pith, long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn or veiled lady
19. Phallus luteus – Species of stinkhorn fungus A new combination proposed in 2008 for the fungus formerly known as Dictyophora indusiata f. lutea.
20. Phallus macrosporus – Stinkhorn fungus from China
21. Phallus maderensis – Stinkhorn fungus from Madeira island
22. Phallus minusculus – Stinkhorn fungus from Tanzania Found by Francisco Calonge and Hanns Kreisel and first reported in 2002.
23. Phallus multicolor – Species of stinkhorn fungus
24. Phallus pygmaeus – Stinkhorn fungus from Brazil This species is a miniature Phallus (up to 1 cm tall) found in the Brazilian State Pernambuco.
25. Phallus ravenelii – Stinkhorn fungus from North America – Ravenel's stinkhorn
26. Phallus rubicundus – Tropical stinkhorn fungus
27. Phallus tenuissimus – Stinkhorn fungus from Yunnan, China