Did you know that puffballs are mushrooms that produce millions of spores?

Did you know that puffballs are mushrooms that produce millions of spores?

Posted on by Rebecca Watson

When a puffball is ripe, the outer portion cracks open, revealing the brown, dust-like spores inside. Wind blows these spores away to new habitats where they grow into new fungi. The Museum has three specimens of Giant Puffballs (Calvatia booniana) on display in the Prairies Gallery.

Learn more about the travelling plants of the prairies in her blog Travelling Plants of the Prairies by Curator of Botany, Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson.

A dried and cracked yellow-brown Giant Puffball mushroom.

Western Giant Puffball (Calvatia booniana). Manitoba Museum, MY-361 © Ian McCausland