Dongsun

Identity and naming

Dongsun is the local name in China for Phallus dongsun, a species of the stinkhorn family Phallaceae. It was described as a new species in 2020, together with Phallus lutescens, from specimens collected in China.

The species was long mistaken for the European Phallus impudicus, and the Chinese crop was once recorded under that name. The catalogue keeps this as a misapplied name: the search alias is Phallus impudicus sensu Chinese Dongsun. The catalogue treats Phallus dongsun as a research name, not a reconciled accepted name, so the page does not merge it with any other taxon.

Cultivation and use

Dongsun is recorded as a cultivated mushroom. The catalogue places its food use in Guizhou Province and other Chinese regions, and records its supply as regional cultivation rather than wild collection.

Chinese sources describe the mushroom as valued both as food and as medicine. A 2025 genome paper on the species calls it an edible and medicinal fungus in the Phallaceae. The sources read here do not give a cooking method, a dish or a market price, so this page records the use without a recipe.

Ecology

The catalogue describes the fungus as a soil and plant-litter saprotroph, feeding on dead organic matter rather than forming a tree partnership. A 2025 study compared soil microbial communities in different Phallus dongsun habitats, which suggests that growing sites are a subject of current research.

Safety and identification

Safety wording: this page describes what the sources record. It is not an identification guide, and it gives no verdict that any Phallus fungus, wild or cultivated, is safe to eat. The catalogue marks its food-use evidence as food, market and specialist evidence, which does not establish identity or a safe preparation by itself.

Stinkhorns have been confused with one another for a long time, as the history of the name shows. Fresh specimens should be identified by a qualified expert before anyone eats them. Eating the commercially cultivated product in China does not establish that a wild specimen gathered elsewhere is the same taxon or is safe.