My BIL had several of these fungus fruiting bodies, I think that’s the term, pop up in the rubber mulch around one on his trees in the yard. No idea of what it might be. It was about 5 inches tall.
Should he be spraying anything on the area?
Any ideas?
Phallus impudicus.
OK, I thought you were being a smart ass, but I was incorrect. :smack:
Thanks for the knowledge. Very interesting. I’ll look forward to sharing with my BIL.
Ignorance fought.
Ha, I texted from my cellphone, so I had to be brief. To answer your other question, spraying would be a shame, even if there was something that would kill the fungus and not every other type of plant and soil life around.
Even if you don’t like these interesting mushrooms, they only bloom for a short while and afterwards there is nothing to see of them.
Well, my BIL is fussy about his lawn, as are many Americans. Myself, I have 5 acres of grass and woods, so a few fungi here and there are no big deal to me. Myself, I don’t worry about the small stuff. After all the local wildlife use the whole place as their bathroom.
Maybe he thinks the little girls in his neighborhood will be shocked? 
This paragraph from the Wikipedia page is priceless; it’s written by Charles Darwin’s granddaughter, describing life in Victorian England:
See, the Latin name is why I thought Maastricht was pulling my leg.
Wiki offers some alternative names:
pricke mushroom
fungus virilis penis effigie
Hollanders workingtoole
phallus hollandicus
Those last two make one wonder about the reputation of the Dutch in 17th-Century England.
There are number of similar risque scientific names, such as Clitoria and Priapulus (little penis).
