# Mycologists, Botanists: What is this thing growing in my mom's garden???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 16, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661 "2009-05-16T17:34:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661/1 "2009-05-16T17:34:29Z")
Pictures available [here](http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj288/lawmonkey_photos/mystery%20garden%20thing/).
This morning, my mother called me out to show me this… thing growing in her garden. It’s about 4" long, and about an inch thick at its widest point. The brown ring towards the tip is mud or some sort of other brown organic matter–it’s wet, and smears with a stick.
My guess is that it’s a fungus of some sort, but I’m curious about exactly what it is.
Possibly related–she was planting stuff last night, and found a few small roundish things in another bit of the garden. They were stone or egg colored, and breaking them revealed an orange inside of a shade quite similar to this odd spike’s outer surface.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661/2 "2009-05-16T17:44:54Z")
Stinkhorn, probably in the genus [Mutinus](http://www.mushroomexpert.com/mutinus_elegans.html).
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### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661/3 "2009-05-16T17:53:44Z")
That’s definitely it–thanks!
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mycologists-botanists-what-is-this-thing-growing-in-my-moms-garden/496661/4 "2009-05-16T18:22:09Z")
As we used to say in the army medics:
“At ease, disease,
There’s fungus among us!”