Return to Hiker's Notebook Home Page   Common NameElegant
Stinkhorn, Devil's Dipstick, Devil's Horn, Devil's Stinkpot, Dog
Penis The fetid smell of the fungus coupled with its cornucopian
shape is appropriately used for the common name stinkhorn. The
more pejorative names are based on its phallic appearance.
Elegant may be in reference to its unadorned, almost artistic
simplicity, however suggestive.   Scientific Name: Mutinus
elegans - The generic name is derived from an early Roman god of
fertility, Mutinus Titinus, whose beneficence was sought by
women to facilitate the conception of a child. Mutinus was
originally thought to have been the focus of a phallic worship
cult in early Rome and was related to the Greek god Priapus (the
adjective priapic means using the phallus in a symbolic manner).
 Priapus was one of the regional names for the god Pan, the
protector of the flocks who was also deemed responsible for the
fecundity of the ewes, thus establishing the phallic
association. The use of the god of fert