WHAT...
ARE...
THESE...
THINGS?!?!?!?
Zorak found these near the cedar tree the other day, while we were picking apples. I'd gladly post the apple picking pictures, but we really want to know what these are. I don't even know how to begin Googling this...
The closed pods are bigger than a golf ball, slightly smaller than a tennis ball. The opened (exploded? bloomed? erupted?) pods are about 4 1/2" across.
I have no idea if they smell.
And, as with the other weird-ass things we find around here, no, I did not touch it.
5 comments:
There is only one answer.
Aliens have landed in your back 40.
Run.
Oh, my gosh, those are creepy....
My kids call them mushrooms. They enjoy plucking the ones on the top photo and hitting them with a bat. The others are simply scuffed up with the shoe and stomped on. Oh- and some of them produce a puff of "smoke" when stomped on. Pretty cool. Anyway, while I don't know if they are actually called "mushrooms" I'd say that they are some sort of fungus. And around here they just grow wherever, when the temp/conditions are right. They die completely in the winter.
Mushroom! It's a type of puffball mushroom, but I'm not sure of the exact genus. Probably not edible so don't serve it for dinner. :)
Added:
It appears to be in the family known as "Earthstar" fungus. A rare find, as I've never seen one and I can spot a mushroom a mile away under a pile of dead leaves. Lucky you!
Thomasina & I used to LOVE these things when we were little!! We called them "smoke bombs" and would race to see who could stomp on them first and make them blow up. (we were kinda weird kids).
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