On This Page: Description, Look-Alikes, Habitat, Season, Edibility
Stalked
Puffball-in-Aspic
(Calostoma cinnabarina)
sculpture, acrylic paint
by "Wildman"
This bright red-orange false puffball (not related to true puffballs) stands on a stalk. It's covered with a thick, clear jelly. The jelly disappears and the color fades when the mushroom gets old, as depicted to the left.
The mushroom is 3/8 to 5/8 inches wide, 1-1/4 to 2 inches tall. There's a cross-like opening at the tip of the puffball-like spore sac.
photo by "Wildman"
Look-Alikes
On a "Wildman" tour, councilors at a summer camp, seeing these bright red gelatinous globes embedded in the earth (before the stalks had elevated them), warned the kids not to disturb the "salamander eggs" (salamanders, being amphibians, lay their eggs in water)!
very young specimen, before the stalk appears
photo by "Wildman"
Habitat
Look for the stalked puffball-in-aspic in the woods. It grows throughout the eastern half of North America.
This common mushroom comes up in the spring, summer, and fall. Old specimens last into the winter.
This mushroom is not edible.
On This Page: Description, Look-Alikes Habitat, Season, Edibility
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