Giant puffball mushroom

photos, Diane Carnevale

So there I was sauntering along the garden bed when I noticed a large white ball (a little bigger than a softball) with purple spots on it, under some foliage. What the heck was it? I dashed inside to go the the all knowing Google-meister to find out, and it turns out that this is a fine example of a Calvatia gigantea—a giant puffball mushroom. These fellas usually grow in woodland settings, so why it's in my garden patch I'll never know. I do put heaps of leaf and grass clipping on the garden bed each fall so maybe there was a random puffball spore sprinkled in. My puffball had some fallen lavender geranium blossom petals on it, so it made it look like a purple spotted egg. I just checked on it today, and the egg is growing larger! Stay tuned...

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POSTSCRIPT: Here is what the puffball looked like 

several months later in December...

not as pretty, for sure.