A week ago, I noticed what looked like a small white egg lying at the base of one of our garden stone walls. A closer look showed that the egg was actually an almost perfectly round white mushroom. I have never seen anything grow so fast… a few days later it was the size of a baseball and now it is larger than a volleyball. (And no, I’m definitely not a sports enthusiast, but these are the only comparisons that fit.)
Either this is a mushroom for the Guinness Book of World Records, or something really weird is about to hatch!
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Mrs. M.
That’s amazing! I hope you’ll keep us updated. I’ve always loved mushrooms.
Hadias
I found one of these in my backyard a few months ago. Upon doing some research I’ve found out that they are a result of mold spores in the soil. Yuck.
I’ve read that if your yard is full of them then you have a problem. I just saw the one so I think I’m o.k.
We pulled it up and broke it apart. The children were just as fascinated as I was.
Thanks for sharing.
clemintine
Looks like a puff ball to me…
my dad and granpa used to go hunting for these…you can eat them…
just dust with flour and fry in hot butter…very rich..
T.S.
That would be a puffball mushroom! They can get huge (over a meter across), and are edible, but not all that great. Yes, I have tried one. They really do not have much flavor, but could stand in for tofu… Just be careful if you decide to eat any mushroom. These are pretty easy to identify because of their distinctive size, but to be sure, you can cut one open and make sure there is no other shape inside (as in a immature amanita), only pure white monotonous flesh.
Oh, and as a fellow downshifter, great site!
Shirley (Choosing Voluntary Simplicity)
I never thought of this thing being a puffball. We do have puffballs around here, but any I have seen have been small and already dry and dark. I have always wished I knew how to tell which mushrooms were edible… our woods are full of mushrooms, especially this year because we have had so much rain. The book I bought about identifying edible mushrooms only added to my confusion!!!
aw
I had a group of mushrooms growing in my back yard once, very small, maybe two or three. Less than a week later it had literally created a wall up and along my fence, it made my skin crawl! They grow incredibly fast.