PUFFBALLS AND FUNGI

letterhead title
Let no one beguile you of your reward in a
voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,
including into those things.... not seen, vainly
puffed up by ... fleshy mind. Colossians 2: 18.

Myceliums rolls its tangled thread
The fungi spores enlarge to spread;
Inside they are tough as they toil,
Underground in fibrous moist soil.

White giant balls attach to short cords.
Their flesh worshipped and adored...
When they release 70 trillion spores,
They're puffed up by these big scores.

Good fungis help living trees to thrive
Giving nutrients for rootlets to survive.
Their partnership gains as they fuse
And sharing will benefit to produce.

The myceliums live for decades
Tho' fungi lacks chlorophyll to aid
And manufacture food of its own.
Longevity relies on trees known
Some species prefer wood decayed.

Voluntary service requires humility
And its rewards we cannot always see.
On occasion a bad fungi climbs too high
Sapping energy from a hapless tree
And may cause the limb to die!

© Andrea Jeanne Petersen
Written September 19, 2004.

We discovered that a limb which went down,
from a puff of strong wind had a bit of bad fungus
which may have eventually spread to the healthy
parts of the weeping willow tree ( see... Lucky Breaks )

heart formation angel formation cut out of puffball

I found this scarred white puffball shown in photo in our woods.
There is something **awesome** about its indented areas. I see
an angel kneeling in prayer with a heart to the side.."natures art."
(I purposely deepened the colors in my illustration above to
lift it out from the white background.)

A good reference guide on puffballs and various fungi's can be
found in Reader's Digest book on North American Wildlife which
has 2,000 plants listed. However, I was unable to identify the odd
fungi on this picture below.. It measured about 1½ feet across and
growing on the edge of our woods...I placed the dollar bill on
top to show the perspective of how large it is in comparison.
It felt soft and spongy to the touch.

September 20, 2004

I emailed a picture of the fungi to a Mycologist, Tom Volk,
who is a Biology prof. at the University of Wi. in La Crosse,
an expert at identifying fungi's. He identified it as some
kind of a puffball..I am sure it must be in a rotted state as
when I tried to turn it over to see the underside, my fingers
went right through it. It was quite anchored to the ground.

Here is the URl to see Tom Volk's interesting website on fungi
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/

A different angle of this newly identified puffball in picture below.

I walked further into the woods and found another fungi
like the one above... only smaller, growing next to a
a young puffball..I walked through blackberry brambles
and knelt in prickly thorns to take this picture..

fungi pair

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© Copyright of this page created September 20, 2004