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Puff the Magic Mushroom
Sometimes giant puffballs are found in strange circles that some people call "fairy rings." It was once thought that these patterns were created by dancing fairies, but today we know the secret lies in the main part of the fungus, the mycelium. The large white globe of the giant puffball is really just the fruiting body that carries and scatters the spores. The mycelium, a thin tangle of white threads, lives underground and extends in all directions through the soil. When the fruiting bodies develop above the soil, they form a circle. Some fairy circles can be as large as 49 feet in diameter!
OLOGY CARD 144
Series: Biology
giant puffball mushroom
Giant puffballs aren't your typical mushrooms. These round, off-white fungi range from the size of a softball to a beach ball! Since they don't have stems, giant puffballs "sit" on lawns and meadows, absorbing nutrients from the soil. A mature giant puffball contains trillions of tiny spores that emerge as a puff of "smoke" if the mushroom is tapped or kicked.
Image credits: main image, Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College, California Academy of Sciences.