March 25, 2005
Puffballs (Lycoperdon)
These clustered puffballs are attached to a rotting log that is overgrown with poison ivy. Puffballs are unusual mushrooms: their spores are on the inside. After the spores have ripened, a small hole forms on the surface of the ball. Then the slightest tap, even from a raindrop, sends a puff of dustlike pores into the air.