As I was out checking on the garden this week, I knew I had a stinkhorn mushroom long before I saw it--the odor led me right to it.
These obnoxious mushrooms can be found throughout Arkansas and are more common after a good soaking rain, and I usually see them more when it is a tad cooler outside. They get their common name because they stink--they smell quite offensive--think rotten meat. Another common name I won't share, is more descriptive of how they look, and yet another common name I just heard is Devil's Lipstick! Clever!
Stinkhorns grow on dead organic matter, so they actually are doing their part to recycle plant debris into humus. They are usually about 4- 6 inches in length, and seemingly appear overnight. Most that I see are bright orange or red but they can be green, white or beige, some have long lacy appendages, or these I found last year look like a frilly skirt, but they still smelled awful.
Their obnoxious odor attracts flies and other insects which eat the slimy material that covers the mushroom and helps spread the spores to other parts of your garden.
Luckily they don't last long and they aren't poisonous, but I can't imagine any human alive even thinking about trying to eat one. There are no chemical controls for them, but you can dig them up and dispose of them if they are causing you too much distress, or just ignore them and they will be gone in a day or two.