Puffballs, Earthstars, Jelly, and Bracket Fungi
[caption id="attachment_14895" align="alignright" width="480"] Puffballs-from-Belfasts-St.-Georges[/caption] A famous scientist’s father asked the man to describe a specific bird. The scientist used impressive language. The father then told the young man his description told him nothing about the bird. The words were mere man-made classification terms. The scientist took the lesson to heart. He became the famous nuclear physicist, Richard Feynman. In discussing puffballs and the other fungi, we will avoid scientific jargon or lingo. Instead, we will speak of what they are and why they are special. [caption id="attachment_14891" align="alignleft" width="320"] Puffball-Fungus-from-Eaglenest-Arunachal-by-Kalyanvarma-CC-by-SA3.0[/caption] As a child, you may have been running in a field and spotted what looked like an odd round or egg-shaped white to greenish-brown object. It may have been smooth, or it may have had small warts or spikes…