Beginner Gardening: Is this a plant or what?, 1 by americanwoman

americanwoman wrote:
Last week these popped up in one area. I picked one and the stem is hollow and a spongy pink. As you can see there is a black tip on the end and it smells like (for lack of a better word) dog poop. And the flies are all over it. It came out of cypress mulch I put down last year. I thought it may be a fungus of some type and decided when more popped up to leave it alone. The next day it starts to disintegrate and within two days it is mostly gone. Today, after an overnight rain two more came up and the flies on it were unbelievable. It is creepy and I have never seen anything like it.