Tag: spores

#365daysofbiking Oh, balls!


September 3rd – Good to see the fungus starting to kick off for the autumn, I adore the mycology.

These earth balls have appeared on Clayhanger Common, and although not prime specimens, they’re the start of a season of wonders of the fungi world that’ll fascinate me for weeks if not months.

These will grow, then ripen until ready, whence they’ll burst upon contact with some passing animal, spreading their spores for another season – and the cycle will continue.

One great thing about the autumn for sure.

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August 9th – Spotted on the way to work, quick mobile phone pictures of something I was ages about. On Sunday, I found a fresh puffball on the Chase, and posted a quick snap on social media. Someone asked what it was, and noted that they’d found one and when touched, it ‘deflated’.

This ripe puffball was just on the edge of a verge in Central Walsall, so I recorded it whole and squashed – I didn’t feel too bad about squashing it, as that’s how it works; the body case crumbled and the millions of spores – the grey-brown smear in the second image – escaped like a cloud of smoke to be dispersed by the wind.

Thus the puffball rises, and lies waiting to be spit by debris or passing animals. Or a large-footed cyclist, in this case.

Of all the plants and species of life, sometimes fungi seem the most opaque, yet fiendishly, simply clever…