What is this? Seed pod? Bug cocoon?

[EnhancedFujita]

Anybody with more knowledge of gardening/bugs know what this is? We planted some bushes and used black mulch from Home Depot about 4 weeks ago. Today I noticed some weird white strands sticking up in few spots near one of the bushes. When I kicked around the mulch I noticed several strange fuzzy pods with one of them having two white things sticking out of the top. I've just assumed it's some kind of seed pod or fungus, but my wife is convinced it's some devil-spawn bug that will murder us in our sleep. Any ideas.


This is a picture of the weird white stands.


One of the pods on it's side with the white stuff poking out. It was originally buried in the mulch with the white poking out the top.


Several more pods that unearthed as I scientifically probed the mulch with my boot.

 

[reignofthetiger]

Looks like some sort of mushroom/fungus.

 

[State43]

I don't know
Therefore
Aliens

 

[ilovetheclones]

If that is Scotts black mulch that is a fungus, be happy that is a small one. We had to call Scotts last year and get a refund after our mulch was growing pancake size fungus things. The black mulch looks nice but i think they use crap wood for it and hope the dye hides it. If you rake it in the fall and spring it is not as bad.

 

[bugs4cy]

Agreed. Fungus-among-us.

We annually wood mulch all our flower beds and run across it occasionally.

 

[statsaholic]

More likely a slime mold.. harmless but freaky looking.. not uncommon at all actually.

 

[jdoggivjc]

 

[Transient]

Where you gonna run, where you gonna hide, N O W H E R E, because there is no one like you left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okW2UfLNaJc

 

[StClone]

It is a common type of mushroom of the genus Coprinus:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/coprinoid.html

Some are edible. The white stringy stuff is the actual fungus or mycelium and the fruiting body is the mushroom stem and cap.

I would not want wood chips which do not degrade and thus attract fungus as they would have to be so laden with toxic preservatives as to me dangerous. My neighbors has wood chips which sprout morels and has made hundreds of dollars at the local farmer's market and friend harvests a delicious mushroom called Wine-capped Stropharia for himself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stropharia_rugosoannulata

 

[EnhancedFujita]

It is a common type of mushroom of the genus Coprinus:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/coprinoid.html

Some are edible. The white stringy stuff is the actual fungus or mycelium and the fruiting body is the mushroom stem and cap.

I would not want wood chips which do not degrade and thus attract fungus as they would have to be so laden with toxic preservatives as to me dangerous. My neighbors has wood chips which sprout morels and has made hundreds of dollars at the local farmer's market and friend harvests a delicious mushroom called Wine-capped Stropharia for himself.

Interesting, thanks for the info, I figured it was something like that, but the wife was convinced there were wings sprouting from the pod.

Even so, maybe I'll round up the family and administer this test tomorrow night.

[video=youtube;WJM2yj87RO4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJM2yj87RO4[/video]