Dog Stinkhorn

This is Mutinus elegans, the dog stinkhorn. This bizarre mushroom emerges from an egg-like structure and the tip is covered in stinky green slime that contains the spores of the fungus. The putrid scent attracts flies and other insects, which get the slime on them and then buzz off to another location, transferring spores to a new possible food source for the fungus. 

This specimen was found on the Blue Square Trail at the Long Ridge Conservation Area, Sullivan, Missouri. This image is part of the article Trailheads: Portals to the Fungal Dimension.