I just discovered this strange looking plant/fungi in my garden.

You mangled it a bit digging it up. If it looks like a red to orange phallus
sticking up out of the ground, it is the fruiting body of a fungus, like a
mushroom. They are ugly but harmless. We sometimes get them in the mulch in
damp years.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)