#agaricaceae

So that's where pigs come from!

Lysterfield Park, Melbourne, Vic

(2022.12.18)

Shaggy ink cap in Helsinki, Finland. October 2022.

Publication info New York :G.P. Putnam’s Sons,1928. Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries BioDiv. Library

Photographs taken on  August 26, 2018, at Hilton Falls Conservation Area, Milton, Canada.

First, I should have been a hand model, don’t you think? Look how well I illustrate the scale of this honking Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea) I encountered while out working on the 5 Mile Radius Birding Challenge. I estimate this one was a couple of feet/60 cm across. There were several of these on a bank next to the trail amid some small trees. At first I thought someone had discarded some foam cushions but the shapes were just too irregular. A light kick sent a cloud of spores into the air confirming my suspicion that they were a freaky fungal find. These things are edible before they form their spores but after that they’ll make you sick so stay away. Until this encounter I’d only ever seen the smaller puffball species so this kind of almost helped make up for finding hardly any birds to add to my list.