Specimen #21 Giant Puffball
Calvatia gigantea
Found while hunting for GC19164 Back in Black at Margo Frankel Woods. (Yes, we found it.)
Whenever we see this fungus, it is in rich woods with hills. "I" of GAIN found this. Her height compared to the edge of the forest made her ideal for spotting it. We couldn't get very close to it, but imagine a styrofoam beach ball, and that is what this looks like in real life.
Some really fun photos of people and giant puffballs can found here, and the author has a more serious page about it here.
When my kids were younger, we all went to Thomas Mitchell Park for a fungus walk with the famous Dr. Lois Tiffany. She said that most of the polypores everyone found were edible (did you look at the fun photos?), but the kids and I stick with Jean Craighead George, author of our favorite book _My Side of the Mountain_, "Don't eat fungus unless you are an expert."
2 comments:
OK. That is crazy. Is it still over there?
It should be. Jake and I saw a small one tonight. This biggie is near the gate going to the back playground. Walk toward the playground, look under and past the trees on the left hand side of the road. It's before the maintenance shed.
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