Pear Shaped Puffball fungus (Lycoperdon pyriforme)
This past October, as I traipsed through the planted parking lot border of my bank, I was startled by this wild looking blob. I have seen giant puffball fungus before but never this type of puffball. This species likes mulch, and homeowners who have had a neglected mulch pile in their yards might wake up one fall day to find a mulch larger pile of these eating their mulch. Careful though, inhaling too many of the spores can give you lycoperdonosis-- an allergic reaction in which the lungs become inflamed. It is tempting to want to stomp on it, like its some sort of living bubble-wrap--in fact this creature would like you to do that--but being engulfed in a cloud of lung-damaging spores is enough to stop me in my tracks! Oh and just to clarify, for the nerds out there, it was originally put in the genus Lycoperdon, then moved to the genus Morganella, and then in 2008 moved back into Lycoperdon (according Wikipedia).
