Puffball Fungi Shrieking In The Rain In Wisconsin (Video)

First Posted: Oct 18, 2016 06:12 AM EDT

YouTube user Cid Freitag filmed puffing puffballs in the grounds of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The video shows puffball fungi shrieking in the rain.

Puffball releasing spore. #fantastic #fungi #photo! pic.twitter.com/diMdhqi45d

— Wild Mushroom Nation (@Shroomwhisperer) October 12, 2016

According to IFL Science, puffball fungi asexually reproduce by discharging spores from their gills. With the breeze of the wind and the drops of rain, the puffball fungi will cause them to bawl out their spores and spread around the area. This creates a sight that is beautiful yet quite unpleasant.

A puffball belongs to a group of fungi known as Basidiomycota. The feature of all puffballs is that they do not have an open cap with spore-bearing gills. Their spores are created internally in a spheroidal fruit body known as gasterothecium. When the spores mature, they create a mass called a gleba, which is situated at the center of the fruit body that is in distinctive color and texture.

They are called puffballs because clouds of brown dust-like spores are discharged when the matured fruit body burst, or if there are raindrops. The stalked puffballs do not have a stem and they are not edible too although sometimes they are thought as mushrooms. Although, some true puffballs have stalks too. There are also false puffballs known as Hymenogastrales and Enteridium Lycoperdon and they are also inedible.

Meanwhile, in Tibet, they use puffballs for making ink. They burn them and grind the ash then put them in water and add glue liquid and "a nye shing ma decoction." This component, when pressed for a long period, turns into a black dark substance that is used then as ink.

There is also a giant puffball known as Calvatia gigantea. This measures up to 30 cm or more in diameter. When this matures, it produces around multiple spores. If they are gathered before the spores formed, it may be cook as slices fried in butter while the flesh is still white. It has a strong flavor just like mushrooms.