I have 2 more photos here of my mysterious fungus. Maybe these are more helpful. This one has more of a hollow core (the white part) rather than gelatinous.
'Fraid not...I've got 2 kinds of stinkhorns in the yard but this isn't one of them. This is something totally different and I'm baffled. <:\
Thank you MycoRob - stinkhorn egg makes a lot of sense! Plus I've found nothing so far in the basidio-truffles with that wide of a gelatinous columella.
As son as I saw the 'jelly' in the first set of images, I was thinking stinkhorn....but the green is what throws me a bit. Glad you guys think the same lines with the stinkhorn though. I was thinking maybe I was nuts when everyone was figuring on a truffle and I just couldn't see it. Would be cool to know which stinkhorn this turns out to be? hudakore...what species of stinkhorn have u had so far appear?
Take another look at my thread 'Better photos...what are they?' in case you didn't see those photos. I have Mutinus caninus and Ravenel's Stinkhorn photos attached and the eggs show no resemblence. However, when I Googled ""Stinkhorn eggs" I got this photo: http://www.fungi4schools.org/Reprints/Photoset01/Phallus_impudicus_Stinkhorn_('egg').jpg (q.v.) and there is some similarity but the peridium on this link is much thicker than the ones in my photos. Also, nothing with a stipe ever comes out of them. Still puzzled.
I can't tell you how relieved I am for a definitive answer. This has been driving me crazy. Thank you all for the time you've taken on helping me with this one. Plugging the name into Google came up with tens of photos of exactly the same type of photos. A very curious organism. I don't want to press my luck but does it have a common name?
I went back to Google and got its common name: Stink poke or Club-shaped stinkhorn. I found that it is a secotioid fungus which apparently includes the false truffle. It seems you are all right.
There are 3 mushroom books I don't leave home without. Two are small regional books and the other is Mushrooms Demystified.
Thank you Harri! Admittedly I was mollified to learn that Hysterangium is related to Phallogaster: Truffle-ism is a lifestyle choice eh :-). Mushrooms Demystified is THE book on the west coast for general macrofungi field identification. There are some good books for the east coast, eg. Mushrooms of Northeast North America ref: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/local_links.php?catid=10#linkid227
Mushrooms Demystified stumps me often? But I still LOVE the book! Others of choice, even though I'm not on the East coast are Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians and Microfungi Associated With Oaks Of Eastern North America. I never put down my Audubon Society Guide though and my Pocket Guide to Mushrooms by Polese has been a new favorite.
