Elegant Stinkhorn - Mutinus elegans

I found this disturbing fungi in my flower bed 😳

I was moving some lavender and noticed the hollow, brightly colored fungi growing in the mulch. And the smell. Stinkhorn is a very literal name 😅 but I don't know about the elegant part 😆

Reading about the Elegant Stinkhorn online wikipedia I discovered they grow from "eggs" under the ground. Sure enough I went back and dug this "egg" up. Actually the fruit body. Btw my fungi ID's are pretty questionable sometimes. This is defintely a stinkhorn but not positive about the elegant variety.

A little squeeze and the stinkhorn growing inside popped out. I'm not going to kid you this was pretty disgusting. My wife said she was almost physically ill.

Here's another photo for a stinkhorn pushing up through the leaf litter.

I'm not sure if this one is spent or if I knocked it over. In either case they don't last very long - 24 to 48 hours.