I'm a far cry from an expert, but would guess that it is a Peziza of some sort. If you do a search on (http://www.rogersmushrooms.com) for "Peziza" you can find many varieties. Hopefully someone can give a more specific answer... Bassun

Looks like Monotropa uniflora, ghost plant. Rather than being a fungus, it feeds on the underground mycelium and hyphae of fungi. It is a true plant, but has to gather its energy from something else.....mychorrizal fungi.

I've tried everywhere around here to find cornmeal in some type of bulk form and outside of the small bags at the grocery store it doesn't exist. Same for soybean meal. My front lawn is 14.5k so buying it in the little 5lbs bags is not an option. As a side note, I'm pretty sure this fungus has popped up every year since the reno in 2013. Usually in April the lawn gets a slight yellow tint in spots and by late June brown patch has set in. With the fungus damage the poor grass just didn't have enough left in it to make it through the hot, dry summer. Last year was the first time I correctly diagnosed the brown patch and with the use of fungicide I had very little casualties even though we had a pretty severe drought. Best I can tell this could be yellow patch but wanted a little reassurance. The Azoxystrobin will be here tomorrow however Saturday would be the earliest I could get it down but they are calling for heavy rains on Sunday. Looks like Monday will be my best bet. The plan is a full strength dose of Azoxystrobin followed in 2 weeks by a full strength dose of Propiconazole. Then cut back to the lower dose if the fungus is under control alternating each through the rest of the summer.

Probably Botrytis. (Photo of the problem plant would be helpful). Yes it is highly contagious. Usually it happens in a case of a high humidity and stagnant air. If you try to grow AVs i a terrarium - and the spores of this fungus get in - it will destroy the plants. Normally this fungus lives on a dead plant material - but if the conditions are right - it will attack living plants. While you can find a fungicide that will take care of it - it will probably be expensive and not good for the family - the better solution is to look what you can do to improve the conditions where your plants grow - may be move them to a drier spot, give more space between the plants, remove all dead and sick leaves... the plants will recover.