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Project Noah Nature School
Lycoperdon pyriforme
A vast colony of puffballs took over a garden. These are usually a choice edible when young. They start out with spiny protrusions on their surface, some of which can still be seen in the photos. The brown powder (gleba) is the fungus' internal, spore-producing tissue that becomes exposed at maturity. It had just rained.
Grows in mulch in full sun on the grounds of Tanglewood Nature Center.
In the periphery of the first photo, you can see the fruiting body of another fungus (bird's nest fungus/Cyathus sp.) which also grew copiously in the mulch, but only remained conspicuous for a few hours.
Spotted on Jul 4, 2019
Submitted on Jul 4, 2019
2 Comments
Sorry that I didn’t check this until now! I’d seen them a lot as a child too. Puffballs appear to like well fertilized soils/ mulch. Thanks for your comment, Tukup.
Haven't seen any of these since we found them as kids in our grove. Thanks Mauna. Nice catch.