This is a fast growing thing,was not out there yesterday. It is growing on the dead plant matter that is caked up on the street drain.
I believe it is a fungus of some kind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

thanks that was what I thought but have never seen slime mold around here and I have lived in this house sense I was 4-will not say how old I am now.

It's funny you should post this because I saw some when I got home from work tonight, but it was raining so I could not go photograph it.

it is very dry here, did have some rain last week, but has dried out again. that was why i was surprised that it was there

Slime mold is also often referred to as what resembles- dog vomit fungus.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/sa...

Karen

And it occurs all over the U.S.

Wierdest fungus I've ever seen
It looks like a deflated balloon growing out of a hickory nut but the nut-resembling part is fungus too, not an actual nut

It is growing in mulch below a maple tree

Stinkhorn fungus.

Karen

Yes, I believe you hit the nail on the head, and very quickly too! It is pretty definitely Mutinus elegans.
I sort of love the name; elegant stinkhorn. Thanks!

Except for my typo, which I just edited.

I'm a treasure trove of useless information.

Karen

<yuk>

I had some back in my little woodland area a couple years back. Very interesting stuff.

Pic of a stinkhorn I had off the patio. Did an 8x10 print and hung it in the bathroom...seemed like a good place for it

Here's the "mate" to go with it Ginger. This is the stinkhorn we had growing in our yard.

Imagine me the first time I saw the darned thing!!!!!!! It was like..... What the _____????????? And MAN! was it ever stinky! All I had to do was walk out the door & you could smell it strongly. We ended up getting lots of them. I learned to look for the "egg" like thing they originate from & dug them up at that stage before they "blossomed" so to speak.

It was shocking at first & then it became hilarious.

Interesting. When I found mine it was just a big pile of slime.