Overview
The Crayfish Pot Stinkhorn (Colus pusillus) is an extraordinary, brightly colored clathroid fungus native to Australia and New Zealand. Belonging to the family Phallaceae, this bizarre species is named for the uncanny resemblance of its scarlet, lattice-like cage structure to a traditional woven wicker crayfish pot or lobster trap.
Biology and Physical Characteristics
Emerging from a gelatinous subterranean ‘egg,’ Colus pusillus rapidly expands into an upright, hollow receptacle consisting of four to eight bright scarlet-orange to vermilion wrinkled columns that arch and branch, fusing at the apex into an intricate cage-like meshwork. The inner surfaces of these lattice arms are coated in a dark olive-brown, gelatinous spore matrix (gleba) that emits an intense, fetid odor resembling rotting meat or carrion.
Behavior and Ecology
Colus pusillus is a saprotrophic recycler that decomposes organic litter in native eucalyptus forests and mulch beds. Its pungent, foul-smelling gleba specifically mimics animal decay, attracting blowflies, carrion flies, and beetles. The insects feed eagerly on the sugary slime, coating their legs and mouthparts with spores before flying off to disperse the fungal progeny across new forest substrates.
Conservation and Human Impact
Evaluated as Least Concern by the IUCN, Colus pusillus is common throughout wet eucalyptus woodlands and temperate garden mulches across southeastern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, providing essential nutrient cycling services.
Interesting Factoid
The Crayfish Pot Stinkhorn produces a lattice basket so precisely resembling a miniature woven lobster trap that when coated in putrid spore slime, it attracts dozens of flies in minutes to disperse its spores!
Last updated: October 2026