Question
Hello,
I live in SE Pennsylvania, and I have several red, slimy, tubular fungus/mushrooms growing in my garden.
nearby, we have red ginger; we thought it was possibly new shoots from that.... My mom, sho lives just a few miles away, showed me the very same thing today, growing under her crepe myrtle tree.... is this fungus from our potting soil, and is it harmful??  thanks for any info, I have looked everywhere for amswers....

Answer
Hi Sue, There is a late summer mushroom know as "witches cap" that is red with a yellow stalk.  The timing is right and it often is found in areas other than forests.  Regardless of variety, it's not harming your plants. In fact, it's beneficial to your plants in helping to break down nutrients.  
Mushroom spores are moved by air and water.  Wherever they find a suitable place to live (decomposing organic matter), they start growing.  Most of the plant is underground.  The reproductive part is all you see.
Mushrooms are probably the least studied of all plants, so it's not known whether the witches cap is poisonous.  I suspect it is, so don't eat it.  Jim