280 days of Urbpandemonium #197

[urbpan]

Four years ago I had some large puffballs appear in my yard. At the time I narrowed them down to two possible species.


If all I cared about was whether I could eat them or not, it wouldn't have mattered. Both possibilities are edible if harvested when the flesh inside is still white. As a matter of fact I did eat some of it. I'm not much of a mushroom cook, I have to admit, and didn't care much for this mushroom.


I left one of the mushrooms that popped up 4 years ago to go through its normal development. The inside turned into a purplish brown powdery mass of spores. After the spores blew away, a cup-like structure was left on the yard. That confirmed my mushrooms as purple-spored puffballs Calvatia cyathiformis*, a species known to occur almost exclusively in grassy yards, presumably feeding on soil nutrients and occasionally forming fairy rings. I am happy to have this creature living in my yard, although our foster puppy uprooted this one.

*Bald, cup-shaped