Faeces Carota - Mutinus elegans
This is the gleba of Mutinus elegans! I found several starting to pop up in some mulch, and couldn't resist cutting one open!
The gleba is an immature fruiting body which is at least partially submerged in the ground. It looks like a whitish "egg" that is up to 4 cm long. When sliced open, you can see the stinkhorn-to-be encased in a gelatinous substance.
''Mutinus elegans'', commonly known as the elegant stinkhorn, the dog stinkhorn, the headless stinkhorn, or the devil's dipstick, is a species of fungus in the Phallaceae family. A saprobic species, it is typically found growing on the ground singly or in small groups on woody debris or leaf litter, during summer and autumn in Japan, Europe, and eastern North America. The fruit body begins its development in an "egg" form, resembling somewhat a puffball partially submerged in the ground. As the.. more
