WHAT started as a joke for a Cairns photographer has grown into a fully-fledged work of art involving penis-shaped mushrooms.

Bridgette Gower has always been intrigued by mushrooms, and when she started photographing phallic fungi, she noticed her photos attracted far more views on social media.

After a colleague suggested she collate all of her fungi shaped like male genitalia into a calendar, Ms Gower thought that was a brilliant idea.

"The more I talked about it, I realised it was something I could do," she said.

"The timing was right - it was sort of in the middle of the year - and I could do it myself, as I had the graphic design skills (and) the photos."

Ms Gower said the hunt for fungi in the Far North took her everywhere from the Cairns Botanic Gardens through to median strips on busy Cairns roads, in the pouring rain, trying to obtain the perfect pic.

"I've captured four individual species for the calendar - that's all I've been able to find in Cairns," she said.

"I hope to be able to find more maybe for next year's calendar - who knows?"

For more information about Bridgette Gower's phallic fungi calendar, head www.phallicfungi.com.