Last year, I covered a large section of my yard with mulch, and put in a
number of plants and shrubs. This year, I've had a few things pop up from
the mulch, that I can only describe as "puff balls." They seem to be some
kind of mold; they have a soft skin that turns yellow under the hose, and
inside they are full of black, powdery stuff that blows away quickly when
exposed. Anybody have an idea what this is, or how to get rid of it?

In article ,
"mobiledan" wrote:

Last year, I covered a large section of my yard with mulch, and put in a
number of plants and shrubs. This year, I've had a few things pop up from
the mulch, that I can only describe as "puff balls." They seem to be some
kind of mold; they have a soft skin that turns yellow under the hose, and
inside they are full of black, powdery stuff that blows away quickly when
exposed. Anybody have an idea what this is, or how to get rid of it?




Probably puffball mushrooms.
Fungi are part of the composting process.

I would not worry about it.
They are most likely not going to hurt your plants.

K.

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On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 16:38:08 GMT, "mobiledan"
wrote:

Anybody have an idea what this is, or how to get rid of it?

They are puff balls which is a common name of the fruiting body of
some forms of fungi. The sack contains spores (seeds) of the fungus
and when it dries, the upper skin breaks open exposing the dusty spore
mass. Some blow away but mostly they wait for a good hard rain and
the raindrops hitting the mass really knocks them out and some are
carried off in the wind and washed into the soil that way.

So what you are seeing is only the final appearance of a larger
underground organism that would look like a mass of fine roots. These
are in general beneficial and there is no need to get rid of them.
The fruiting bodies can be eaten while still white to cream colored.

Many of these Gastromycets (stomach fungi) are quite strange. Another
one is called Earth-Stars, I think. When the upper skin splits it
opens star-shaped exposing several larger spores and it looks like a
birds nest. Each spore is attached by a filament and when a rain drop
falls into the bowl shaped "nest" the spore is thrown outward -
attached by the filament, I guess so it does not get too far.

Rusty Mase

Thanks for your very informative answers!

"mobiledan" wrote in message
...
Last year, I covered a large section of my yard with mulch, and put in a
number of plants and shrubs. This year, I've had a few things pop up from
the mulch, that I can only describe as "puff balls." They seem to be some
kind of mold; they have a soft skin that turns yellow under the hose, and
inside they are full of black, powdery stuff that blows away quickly when
exposed. Anybody have an idea what this is, or how to get rid of it?