The species was first described by the Catholic Priest and missionary Pierre-Martial Cibot in the publication Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae (New memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg) (1775), where he reported finding it near Peking (now Beijing).
This finding represents the earliest published scientific record of a fungus from China.
Cibot's original name for the lantern stinkhorn, Phallus mokusin, was sanctioned by Christian Hendrik Persoon in his 1801 Synopsis Methodica Fungorum.
In 1823, Elias Magnus Fries  transferred it to the genus Lysurus in his Systema Mycologicum.
L. mokusin is the type species of the genus Lysurus.

In 1938, Y. Kobayasi reported the form L. mokusin f. sinensis, which he said differed from the main species in having a head that was more angular and conical at the top; the form sinensis was also reported in Korea in 1995.
Some authors have attempted to define forms of L. mokusin as new species based on the degree of separation of the apical arms.
For example, to contrast with his concept of Lysurus in which the arms were either free or slightly fused, the genus Lloydia was created by Chow in 1935 to contain species in which the tips of the arms were fused.
As a result of various differing interpretations of the limits of L. mokusin, and the desire of some authors to define new species based on perceived differences, the fungus has acquired a lengthy list of synonyms over the years.

L. mokusin is commonly known as the "lantern stinkhorn", the "small lizard's claw", or the "ribbed lizard claw".

Lysuris mokusin has been included in a large-scale phylogenetic analysis of Gomphoid and Phalloid fungi published in 2006, and was shown to form a clade with Simblum sphaerocephalum, Lysurus borealis, and Protubera clathroidea.
The species was first described by the Catholic Priest and missionary Pierre-Martial Cibot in the publication Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae (New memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg) (1775), where he reported finding it near Peking (now Beijing). This finding represents the earliest published scientific record of a fungus from China. Cibot's original name for the lantern stinkhorn, Phallus mokusin, was sanctioned by Christian Hendrik Persoon in his 1801 Synopsis Methodica Fungorum. In 1823, Elias Magnus Fries  transferred it to the genus Lysurus in his Systema Mycologicum. L. mokusin is the type species of the genus Lysurus.
In 1938, Y. Kobayasi reported the form L. mokusin f. sinensis, which he said differed from the main species in having a head that was more angular and conical at the top; the form sinensis was also reported in Korea in 1995. Some authors have attempted to define forms of L. mokusin as new species based on the degree of separation of the apical arms. For example, to contrast with his concept of Lysurus in which the arms were either free or slightly fused, the genus Lloydia was created by Chow in 1935 to contain species in which the tips of the arms were fused. As a result of various differing interpretations of the limits of L. mokusin, and the desire of some authors to define new species based on perceived differences, the fungus has acquired a lengthy list of synonyms over the years.
L. mokusin is commonly known as the "lantern stinkhorn", the "small lizard's claw", or the "ribbed lizard claw".
Lysuris mokusin has been included in a large-scale phylogenetic analysis of Gomphoid and Phalloid fungi published in 2006, and was shown to form a clade with Simblum sphaerocephalum, Lysurus borealis, and Protubera clathroidea.
Lysurus mokusin