New Zealand has voted its pick for the national fungus.

Photo: Supplied / Landcare Research

The competition, run by Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, asked the 65 attendees of the 32nd annual New Zealand Fungal Foray to nominate their favourite fungus - and nearly 2500 votes were cast.

The overwhelming winner was the de facto national fungus: the blue Entoloma (werewere-kōkako).

The sky-blue mushroom already has a fairly high profile for a fungus, it's on the $50 note and has been on a stamp.

And in bush it's quite a standout - its blue is matched on the forest floor only by the wattle of the kōkako.

Photo: Supplied

Manaaki Whenua mycologist Peter Buchanan said he was not surprised the blue Entoloma was the most popular.

"It is in people's face a lot, and the colour is endearing," Dr Buchanan said.

In second place was the matakupenga or basket fungus Ileodictyon cibarium, a bizarre stinkhorn that spits out a white lattice ball.

"The basket fungus has an intriguing geometric structure but smells really bad to attract flies," Dr Buchanan said.

Photo: Supplied

The mushroom chosen by Scientific American blogger Jennifer Frazer - who recently visited New Zealand, and who's idea it was to crown a foremost fungus - was the Tylopilus formosus, so chosen for its 'all black' colour.

But it came dead last with only 42 votes. Many questioned the premise on which it was included - it's actually more of a dark-purple violet.

There are tens of thousands of fungus species in New Zealand.