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What is this fungus?

DutchBoy

By DutchBoy
in General geocaching topics

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umc

umc

Posted
Posted

You sure thats not a dinosaur egg?? icon_smile.gif

 

Very interesting non the less.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

The 'idiot' who should be banned because he likes to spend all day annoying people while drinking beer.

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umc

umc

Posted
Posted

You sure thats not a dinosaur egg?? icon_smile.gif

 

Very interesting non the less.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

The 'idiot' who should be banned because he likes to spend all day annoying people while drinking beer.

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Buck8Point

+Buck8Point

Posted
Posted

I posted a pic of a smaller one in this cache log earlier this week. Eat Your Beer Cache

Ball Fungus is a bit different from a Puff Ball Fungus, which is the darker variety.

Both are Basically modified mushrooms, but the Puff Ball Fungus eventually ruptures and expells a cloud of dark brown spores, where as the Ball Fungus is basically somewhat solid and not a hollow sack like the Puff Ball Fungus.

This may be the exact species you encountered.

Giant Puff Ball Fungus

 

Buck8Point

-------------------------

If I can't Fix it, It's Definately Broke.

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welch

+welch

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by datum:

I believe that to be a Puff Ball (that's my guess)....and yes they can get that big. I believe the rule on those is...if it's white on the inside it's edible, if it's black on the inside it's poisoness.

i agree with datum, either its a puffball, or someone lost a soccerball and it took root icon_biggrin.gif

 

whack.gif

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welch

+welch

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by datum:

I believe that to be a Puff Ball (that's my guess)....and yes they can get that big. I believe the rule on those is...if it's white on the inside it's edible, if it's black on the inside it's poisoness.

i agree with datum, either its a puffball, or someone lost a soccerball and it took root icon_biggrin.gif

 

whack.gif

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The Face

The Face

Posted
Posted

Datum hit it right on the head. however smaller puff balls are better eating, NOTHING compares to morel mushrooms though.

 

SHROOM ON! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_eek.gif

 

PS--you DONT want to breathe in the "spore clouds" from puffballs,and its bad for dogs to.

I dont remember the name of the disease at the moment,but I had a friend lose 3 dogs to it ,,then he sold his house and moved away from the river that had puffers all over in its flood plain.

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The Face

The Face

Posted
Posted

Datum hit it right on the head. however smaller puff balls are better eating, NOTHING compares to morel mushrooms though.

 

SHROOM ON! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_eek.gif

 

PS--you DONT want to breathe in the "spore clouds" from puffballs,and its bad for dogs to.

I dont remember the name of the disease at the moment,but I had a friend lose 3 dogs to it ,,then he sold his house and moved away from the river that had puffers all over in its flood plain.

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PewterZ

+PewterZ

Posted
Posted

While we are on the subject I also found this strange star shaped fungus while caching. At first I thought it was just some artificial floral litter. But when I (being the inquisitive person I am) felt it I realized it wasn't fake but some sort of mushroom. I have yet to figure out what it was. It was growing along a creek bed in the cincinnati area. If anyone has a clue as to what it is please let me know. Here is a link to the pic.

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Freelens&Mosie

+Freelens&Mosie

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Alan2:

OK Freelens & Mosie. You posted first. You get first dibs. Just leave me a little.

 

ALan

 

Last time I tried eating strange fungus I woke up naked in Golden Gate Park with a ladder,a deck of cards and someone named Moon View. So thanks but no thanks.

 

You can't be lost if you don't care where you are.

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Trudy & the beast

+Trudy & the beast

Posted
Posted

This has been a good yearfor puff balls. We have seen scores of them on the trails. They are edible while they are young, the outer skin is bright white and the meat is white throughout. Once they start to mature, they get brown on the inside and it is not recommended that they be eaten. We have tried them and found them to be rather tasteless.. What's the point? Go to the A&P and get some fresh button mushrooms if you want flavor. If you should kick a mature puff ball, as a previous poster suggested, it may explode into a cloud of spores. Yours apprears to be young, as it matures it will change from a bright white to a light gray-brown with a mottled appearance. They can grow up to 3 feet in diameter, but the largest I have seen was about 18 inches with the vast majority in the 8-12 inch range.

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

quote:
if it's white on the inside it's edible, if it's black on the inside it's poisoness.

 

My mother in-law was telling me this very thing as she gathered some puffballs (white inside) during an early morning hike. She took them home and made a delicious saute with them. Our 5 year old (at the time) daughter, being a picky eater, refused them, but me, my wife and her parents tried them. My mother in-law ate the most, by far.

 

A few hours later mom in-law drove off to meet some friends for lunch and the rest of us sat down to eat. I started feeling very strange and mentioned that fact. My father-in-law said, "me too". Next thing, you see my mother in-law's car driving down the street swerving like a drunk. She pulls in, runs to the bathroom and starts tossing. The rest of us go to lay down and fall asleep on the floor. Couple of hours later we wake up and mother in-law is still out cold on the bed. We get her up and she is still woozy, although the rest of us are pretty much recovered.

Thank goodness our daughter didn't try them. The effect on a 5 year old could have been disasterous. My in-laws keep saying to this day that they've never heard of poisionus white puff balls, but haven't eaten any since. Nor will I.

 

"Life is a daring adventure, except when it comes to puffballs" - Brian Sniatkowski

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SamLowrey

+SamLowrey

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by The Face:

 

PS--you DONT want to breathe in the "spore clouds" from puffballs,and its bad for dogs to.

I dont remember the name of the disease at the moment,but I had a friend lose 3 dogs to it ,,then he sold his house and moved away from the river that had puffers all over in its flood plain.

 

Nasal passages run very close to your brain. Nice dark, warm and damp place for a fungus to grow, too. I'm surprised this isn't more of a problem with spores being so inhalable (is that a word?).

 

But you don't have to worry about the ones that die. The ones whose minds are now controlled by fungus are more of a threat. They are everywhere! icon_eek.gif

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SamLowrey

+SamLowrey

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by The Face:

 

PS--you DONT want to breathe in the "spore clouds" from puffballs,and its bad for dogs to.

I dont remember the name of the disease at the moment,but I had a friend lose 3 dogs to it ,,then he sold his house and moved away from the river that had puffers all over in its flood plain.

 

Nasal passages run very close to your brain. Nice dark, warm and damp place for a fungus to grow, too. I'm surprised this isn't more of a problem with spores being so inhalable (is that a word?).

 

But you don't have to worry about the ones that die. The ones whose minds are now controlled by fungus are more of a threat. They are everywhere! icon_eek.gif

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SamLowrey

+SamLowrey

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by BrianSnat:

 

My mother in-law was telling me this very thing as she gathered some puffballs (white inside) during an early morning hike. She took them home and made a delicious saute with them......

 

I believe the Aztecs had a word, unpronouncable to us, that translated, roughly, into "beware of in-laws with the urge to saute dubious items."

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datum

+datum

Posted
Posted

“white on the inside” is not failsafe. There are several species that are poisonous. So…it is very important to identify and sample cautiously. Also, some of the so-called edible puffballs will have a purgative effect on some individuals. That can be true of many mushrooms….one that I might have a negative reaction to may not affect you.

 

Side note - The reason I bought a GPSr was to aid in the hunt and tracking of Morels every year. Well….hasn’t really increased my find yet but has kept me from getting lost in the woods. Shrooming seems to be a bit like Geocaching. Mother Nature more or less hides it…and we more or less try to find it.

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Strix

+Strix

Posted
Posted

Yup, PewterZ, you got an earthstar there. Probably Astraus hygrometricus. Fairly common throughout North America from September through November. They are not edible. One interesting note: These earthstars are hard and leathery when dry but quickly revive when soaked in water.

 

More than you care to know, I'm sure! icon_wink.gif

 

"When the chips are down, the buffalo ate birds."

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Strix

+Strix

Posted
Posted

Yup, PewterZ, you got an earthstar there. Probably Astraus hygrometricus. Fairly common throughout North America from September through November. They are not edible. One interesting note: These earthstars are hard and leathery when dry but quickly revive when soaked in water.

 

More than you care to know, I'm sure! icon_wink.gif

 

"When the chips are down, the buffalo ate birds."

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umc

umc

Posted
Posted

Thanks to this thread I knew what I came across out on the trail the other day. I saw a ton of those puff balls all over where I was here in MI and I just laughed quietly to myself saying; see all that time I spend on here wasn't a waste. I actually learned something.

 

Thanks for lesson all.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

Bitter New Owner Of a Garmin GPS V Received on 10-03-02

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