Now I was always led to believe that most puffballs were non-poisonous, but distasteful after the spores had matured.
When I was a kid and young man in New Zealand, I used to go mushrooming a lot and I knew I'd hit the jackpot when I found the giant puffballs (about the size of a soccer ball). I'd slice them into 'steaks' about an inch thick (25mm) and fry them in butter. Delicious! And definitely non-poisonous. The flesh was white as spores had not yet developed. However, I'd check your local species before indulging in any gourmet repasts. Max Novels by Max and/or Ariana Overton http://www.maxoverton.com The Lion of Scythia Trilogy - EPPIE winners 2005 and 2006 The Glass House Trilogy (Eppie finalists), A Cry of Shadows, The Devil is in the Details, Trapdoor, Tapestry Scarab - Akhenaten (Book 1 of the Amarnan Kings), Scarab - Smenkhkare (Book 2 of the Amarnan Kings), Scarab - Tutankhamen (Book 3 of the Amarnan Kings), Scarab - Ay (Book 4 of the Amarnan Kings), Rakshasa, Glass Continuum, Ascension Works in Progress: Djinn, Scarab - Horemheb (Book 5 of the Amarnan Kings) Also check out http://julesphotographiccreations.blogspot.com/ Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:55:59 +0530 From: [email protected] Subject: [indiantreepix:15005] Re: Fungus - Puffball To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] All, At the begining, we thought of them to be a kind of fallen fruits. The part of the hill was like a grass/open land - no trees near by.. We saw dozens of such white balls strewn arround. Here is what Parul R Sheth has to share on Puff balls in his book - "Strange Plants" "The interesting fact about this is that when rain drop falls on a ripe puff ball, a small cloud of spores is puffed out. It has a distant cousin in the giant puffball of Central America. These are said to choke nearby observers when all of the many billions of spores explode together. " Attached a puff ball -habitat photograph and also the South east monsoon arrival we witnessed in the Western ghats- winds blowing fast and the clouds passing over us and a complete clearing in 10-15 minutes in the afternoon at 1:45PM. Regards Raghu From: Parjanya guru <[email protected]> To: nabha meghani <[email protected]> Cc: raghu ananth <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009 3:58:32 PM Subject: [indiantreepix:15003] Re: Fungus - Puffball I too agree with Nabha.. Dear Raghu, hope you have not noticed its bursting... There will be a large cloud of the spores, burst out even after a gentle press.. So you will get a yellow colored powder.... On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:03 AM, nabha meghani <[email protected]> wrote: Hallo, in german they come under tha category BOVIST http://www.mushroomexpert.com/scleroderma_citrinum.html Most of them are poisonous. if u press them a big cloud of spores comes out. Regards Nalini ----- Original Message ----- From: raghu ananth To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 6:45 PM Subject: [indiantreepix:14981] Fungus - Puffball Mushroom with round head, Bhimana gudda, Western ghats, Uttara Kannada 24 June 2009 Regards Raghu Looking for local information? Find it on Yahoo! Local Love Cricket? Check out live scores, photos, video highlights and more. Click here. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
