Large yard blob identified as mushroom
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A Michigan family said a "weird looking" white blob they discovered in the yard turned out to be a large mushroom.
Linda Key, 53, of Rochester Hills, and her husband, Glenn, 52, said the blob, which is about the size of a basketball and weighs nearly 2 pounds, was first spotted Sunday among the rocks lining their flower bed, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.
"We didn't know if it was going to start walking away or what. It was so weird looking," Glenn Key said.
The couple's son, Wyatt, 13, likened the object to something out of a sci-fi movie.
"The whole experience has been very weird ... looking at it, thinking it's an alien egg," he said.
However, mushroom experts identified the object as a fungus commonly called a puffball.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 2, 2012 8:59 AM
After the shellacking Alabama's Crimson Tide put on Michigan's Wolverines last night (41 to 14), the Big Ten would rather talk about mushrooms. Big ones, the size of footballs. I mean, soccer, soccer balls.
Speaking of shellac and mushrooms, I've sprayed varnish on unusually beautiful mushrooms and toadstools for years, which preserves them rather well.
Posted by: twolaneflash at September 2, 2012 9:16 AMAfter the shellacking Alabama's Crimson Tide put on Michigan's Wolverines last night (41 to 14), the Big Ten would rather talk about mushrooms. Big ones, the size of footballs. I mean, soccer, soccer balls.
Speaking of shellac and mushrooms, I've sprayed varnish on unusually beautiful mushrooms and toadstools for years, which preserves them rather well.
Posted by: twolaneflash at September 2, 2012 9:16 AMAnd where is Sheri Gilmour's "Stick Science" when one needs it? Alien eggs ALWAYS require poking with a stick. Sweet Steve McQueen, what is wrong with people nowadays?
Posted by: Joan Of Argghh at September 2, 2012 9:38 AMAs your unofficial correspondent in Michigan I have to admit that's pretty big news around here. Does more interesting stuff happen in other states?
Posted by: John Kidle at September 2, 2012 10:46 AMAs a Michigan boy myself, I once found one of these things in my back yard. I had no idea what it was, and neither did my friends or parents. Sucker was huge, too. So I, like any enterprising 9-year-old did back in the days before they had metal detectors and did full-body scans at the schoolhouse door, brought it to school for show & tell. The teacher, an older Canadian lady who was also an experienced mushroom picker, knew right away what it was, and gave an impromptu and fascinating class on the various types of fungi, and then decided on the spot to add "fungus appreciation" to her curriculum. It was great, because we got to go outside to collect the various specimens, argue with each other as we tried to look them up in the guidebooks, and compete with each other to find the most beautiful, or weirdest, mushroom, shelf fungus, or whatever we could. That semester was a blast, and I actually learned something that I still remember.
Posted by: waltj at September 2, 2012 10:48 AM
HOME