Calostoma cinnabarinaI think that the rain last week has been encouraging our mycelial forest friends, and over the weekend I found a bunch of these strange objects growing in the woods along the Fenton River in Mansfield Center. After a bit of poking around in mushroom books, I'm fairly confident that they are Calostoma cinnabarina, or Pretty Lips, a fungus with some similarities to puffballs, though apparently the two are not related. A gelatinous protective layer and inner membrane peel away from the puffball part when the spores ripen, creating a little pile of tapioca-looking jelly with curled up bits of membrane in it.
3 comments:
Some of these fungi are just incredible! Wonderful find. So interesting!!!
I was surprised-- there were so many of them, and I'm not sure I've ever even seen this species before.
Those are SOOO cool! Never seen them before.
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