Taking a closer look, I noticed that these brown balls had a stalk! They are fungi!
Checked with LK and also the fungi guide book later, and realised that this is actually a puff ball, probably a Calvatia sp. This puff ball is supposed to be rather common, and can usually found on lawns, golf greens and open fields. And this was really huge for a fungi. Just compare it with the grass blades by the side - its almost 15cm wide!
Here're 2 of them. There were like 5 or 6 of them on the grass patch. They apparently got their common name from their round basidiocarps and the way the spores of many species with soft basidiocarps are being "puffed out" by rain drops.
While I have seen puff balls before, I have never seen such big ones. Guess there're still a lot of nature stuff in Singapore waiting to be seen, but sometimes, you just need to be at the right place at the right time :P
The first time I saw these, I thought someone left heads of bone joints on the road side. Wanted to photograph them but the grass cutters got to them before I did.
ReplyDeleteHaha. I thought they were some broken branches initially. To think that I grew up in a kampong and for all my nature trips these years, I had never seen them :P
ReplyDeleteI went in search of fungi today n came back with a haul of various types. Will post them soon.
ReplyDeleteWe used to play with puff balls as kids. They are good to eat when picked young.
ReplyDeleteOld Duffer
http://oldduffersnaturecinema.blogspot.com
very good in the bio diversity year this blog will be a great help to me to teach it
ReplyDeleteCalvatia craniiformis ?
ReplyDelete