Purple ball of gooeyness

July 20, 2013 6:06 PM

Please help me identify this strange purple ball of gooeyness I found in my lawn. It's about the size of a golf ball, has a gooey purple membrane on the outside, and upon post-dissection examination, appears to be layered with a central core. Could this be a seed of some sort?
posted by mrrisotto to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Where are you located?
posted by jquinby at 6:12 PM on July 20, 2013

It is some sort of round immature mushroom, like an earthstar or a stinkhorn.
posted by Nomyte at 6:18 PM on July 20, 2013

Is it possible it's a type of chestnut, and the outside has simply rotted to goo?
posted by DarlingBri at 6:19 PM on July 20, 2013

Leaning now toward stinkhorn. Check out this longitudinal cross-section with annotations. Also check out its Wikipedia page with helpful reference images.
posted by Nomyte at 6:28 PM on July 20, 2013

This sounds like yet another job for the Dave's Garden Plant Identification folks!
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:29 PM on July 20, 2013

And, finally, if it has a purple gooey membrane, it seems to be the stinkhorn Phallus hadriani. Check out its "eggs."
posted by Nomyte at 6:35 PM on July 20, 2013

Agree that it's fungi, the spores are a dead giveaway.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:06 AM on July 21, 2013