Strange, orange, spongy thing in my asparagus patch.

Can anyone identify this? I was checking my asparagus for signs that it is beginning to grow, and found this poking out of the straw. I've never seen anything like it.

It may be fungus. I've seen growths like that on playgrounds that were covered with bark mulch. I'm assuming that the mulch came with the fungus when the bark was delivered and spread on the playground.

It definitely appears to be a fungus of some kind. And, there is decaying wood mulch underneath that straw.

I'm gonna guess Slime Mold, variety Dog Vomit *G*.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/sam21/dogvomit.htm

I find these things in the oddest places.....

catmad, when I was in college in a woman's cooperative, we had a recipe we called "Specific Slime Mold". In reality it was called Pacific Lime Mold, involved green jello, cottage cheese and some other goodies and was pretty tasty. But I haven't seen anything called Slime Mold since. Brought back some memories.

Uh, looks like a Cheerio or a Cheese Puff...

Thanks to Google, I did finally figure it out. It's a stinkhorn, I think. They're supposed to smell horrible, but this one doesn't have any scent to it (hopefully that's not a "yet"). Now I'm trying to figure out if it is either harmful or beneficial to the garden, and haven't found anything one way or the other on that. It's certainly interesting.

You're right! Not a Cheeto or a Cheerio! It's a stinkhorn. Here's a picture of another one.

Dog Vomit Slime Mold was featured in the latest "Bones" tv show.

"Dog Vomit Slime Mold." The name alone tells me that it's the reincarnation of a really bad person.

In Florida this fungus is very common. I usually can smell it before I actually see it. Sometimes I will dig up the above ground portion but that still leaves all of the underground parts. It is harmless as far as I know.

I always take such fungi as a sign of good rich soil with a lot of organic material in it. They're nothing harmful (well, I wouldn't EAT it), but they indicate your garden soil is good for growing plants.

mark, this one never had any smell, but the flies sure loved it!

Ozark, I had not considered that, and what a nice way of looking at it!

I have this in my mulched beds every year. its a stiny little bugger. we smell them before we see them too. the scent usually prompts us to go find the darn things and get rid of em!. they are odd looking though.

It's in the mulch when kept wet. It's beautiful in its own way. I simply enjoy the formation and the color of them. I have coffee color, yellowy and orange to red ones.

I have only ever seen the orange ones. last year we had tons of em!