Clathrus columnatus, commonly known as the column stinkhorn, is a saprobic species of basidiomycete fungus in the family Phallaceae.

The inside surfaces of the columns are covered with a fetid olive-brown spore-containing slime, which attracts flies and other insects that help disseminate the spores.

[1] Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck transferred it into Laternea in 1858, a genus intended to accommodate those Clathrus-like species with arms arranged in columns rather than a network;[2] in its current meaning, Laternea includes species that have gleba suspended below the arch of the receptaculum by trabeculae (columns that extend from the peridium to the central core of the receptaculum).

The fruit body, or receptaculum, of Clathrus columnatus consists of two to five (usually four) spongy vertical columns, which are separate where they arise from the volva, but joined at the top in an arch.

He found that the egg consists of cortical and medullary systems continued upward from the mycelial strand in the earliest stage.

[14] Like all Phallaceae species, C. columnatus is saprobic, and uses extracellular digestion to acquire nutrients from dead and decaying organic matter, like wood.

It can often be found growing in and around gardens and residences where areas of cultivation or landscaping have resulted in accumulations of mulch, wood chips or other cellulose-rich materials.

[11] Fruit bodies appear singly, or scattered, and can arise in the summer, autumn, and early winter, especially after wet weather.

[20] The words of William Gilson Farlow, published in 1890, serve as a warning to those who might be inclined to consume Clathrus columnatus: "The odor of fully grown specimens of the order Phalloidea is so repulsive that the question as to their poisonous character when eaten by men has often been the subject of experiment."

Farlow described two cases of poisoning, one involving a young girl "who ate a small piece of the fungus, and was seized with violent convulsions followed by loss of speech and a deep sleep lasting 52 hours"; the other case involved hogs that ate the fungus found in patches in oak woods, and died 12–15 hours later.

[21] Despite the early report of poisoning, Orson K. Miller, Jr. considers the egg's taste mild and lists the species as edible.