Elegant Stinkhorn?

While waiting for the electrician I noticed a yellow/orangish colored thing in the grass.  Upon first glance I thought it was a carrot, but then I processed that thought some more.  This *carrot* is nowhere near the garden and why would it be just lying on the ground?  So I decided to inspect further.  Upon initial inspection I realized it was not  a carrot but rather a lightweight hollow *thing.*  It’s flesh, when squeezed, was not unlike a crisp curcurbit flower however it had a most terrible odor.  This thing stunk, the smell reminded me of a long National Express bus journey from Edinburgh to Exeter when a drunk man stinking of stale beer and even more of stale urine sat beside me for the long journey finishing by leaving a puddle of urine in his seat when getting of the bus at Manchester.  That is what this smelled of… dirty Mancunian.  When Ian got home from work I had him give his analysis.  Him being a dirty Wiganer I figured he would know a dirty Mancunian if he saw one…  Well, he had no idea what the thing was but only that it stunk and he thought it looked somewhat phallic.

We had a look around to see if we could find any more of these things and then went home.  I having never seen anything like it, on a hunch looked in my mushroom book.  After perusing all the pages the closest thing I can come up with is the Elegant Stinkhorn.  I’m not 100% convinced because there was no slime on top but it was hollw, simlar colored, the right size, and definately stinky.

Here are some shots I took…