Question

mushroom   QUESTION: All of a sudden I have these strange looking mushrooms coming out of my mulch. They look like white aparagus with a black cap and a "big eye" on top. They do not smell, so I don't think they are stinkhorn. They only live one day and then fall over and turn yellow. Have you got an idea?

ANSWER: Hi Ilse, It looks like the white form of the dog stinkhorn to me, Mutinus caninus albus.  Jim

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QUESTION: Thank you Jim, anything I can do to prevent further growth of them? Are they poisonous to pets?  

Answer
Pets don't normally bother them because the smell is so much more intense to them. Most of the fungus looks like roots in the mulch.  When the reproductive (mushroom) structure pops up, I'd knock it over to keep the spores from maturing and nothing else.  You could treat the area half a dozen times or so a year with a fungicide and probably control it, but I wouldn't worry about them.  Jim