The mushroom season has not been the bumper crop it was last year in the areas that I explore. But, I have been enjoying watching the progression of puffball mushrooms whose current shape remind me of the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller. I believe these are Lycoperdon marginatum, commonly known as the Peeling Puffball. If so, later in their development the outer layer of white short spines will peel off in large flakes exposing the brown surface below. When they mature further a small opening will appear at the top of the puffball from which spores will be released.

This is just one of the 2,500 kinds of mushrooms that grow in Maine. To see and learn more read my Nature Note: Mushrooms and One Imposter.

All mushrooms (approximately 27,000 species worldwide) are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. Yeast and molds are also fungi, as well as the one-celled aquatic chytrids that can live in the capillary networks around soil particles and in periglacial soils.

So, there is lots more to explore about the fungus among us!