What plant is this?

[goldyne]

I found this growing in my garden a few days ago (I live in Santa Barbara, CA). I found it in the morning at about 1 inch tall, and by the end of the day it was 3 inchs. Later that night, I found it half eaten by slugs. however, a few more have come out since then. They grow out of what looks like an egg. The egg itself is soft. One that I was able to protect from the slugs, wilted up the next day. It has plenty of water, and the temp was about 70. I have showed it to some friends, and they have no clue. The pink shaft slides right out of the egg and is in no way attached to anything. The egg has a few roots. Does anyone have any idea what these are? If needed, I have much higher resolution images.

[goldyne]

A botanist identified this as a Lysurus mokusin: The Lantern Stinkhorn

FUNGUS!

[pruninggal]

goldyne,

Thanks for posting the reply - I knew it was some sort of fungus but you really have to be into those to be in the know! (Plus it's pretty gross!)

Pruninggal