Overview
The Anemone Stinkhorn (Aseroë rubra), also known as the starfish fungus, is one of the most bizarre and visually astonishing mushrooms in the fungal kingdom. Native to the damp temperate rainforests of Australia and New Zealand, this member of the Phallaceae family was the first Australian fungus ever formally described by European botanists, collected during Jacques Labillardière’s 1792 expedition in Tasmania. Erupting from an egg-like volva, it forms an elevated, hollow white stipe crowned by a brilliant ruby-red, star-shaped disc that uncannily mimics a sea anemone.
Biology and Physical Characteristics
Aseroë rubra begins development as an underground, gelatinous, golf-ball-sized structure known as the volva. Upon maturation, the volva ruptures, allowing a hollow, cylindrical white to pale-pink stipe to expand rapidly within hours. At the apex, the stipe expands into a horizontal disc from which 6 to 10 pairs of bifurcated, claw-like arms radiate outward in a vivid scarlet-red or fiery orange star pattern. The central disc is coated with a thick, dark olive-brown to black slimy matrix called the gleba, which contains millions of microscopic fungal spores and produces a potent, foul odor reminiscent of rotting carrion.
Behavior and Ecology
As an obligate saprotrophic fungus, Aseroë rubra plays an essential ecological role in decomposing decaying leaf litter, fallen wood, and fibrous organic compost. To achieve spore dispersal in sheltered forest understories where wind currents are minimal, the fungus employs an ingenious entomophilous strategy: its fetid, volatile chemical bouquet attracts blowflies, flesh flies, and beetles from hundreds of meters away. The insects land eagerly on the central disc to feed on the sweet, smelly gleba, inadvertently coating their bodies and legs with spores, which they subsequently transport across the forest floor.
Conservation and Human Impact
Evaluated as Least Concern by the IUCN, Aseroë rubra is common and ecologically secure across its native Australasian range. Over the past century, it has successfully established introduced colonies in North America, Great Britain, and Hawaii, transported inadvertently in horticultural mulch and potted plants. In suburban gardens, its appearance frequently startles landscapers, but mycologists celebrate it as a benign and beneficial decomposer that rapidly enriches garden soils.
Interesting Factoid
Aseroë rubra holds historical distinction as the very first fungal species ever collected, illustrated, and scientifically described from the continent of Australia, documented by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in southern Tasmania in 1792.
Last updated: October 2026