Entry · Monday, May 11, 2026
Plate XV. A giant puffball mushroom in an alpine meadow.
Photo by Henk Monster, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Giant Puffball Mushroom
/JY-unt PUF-bawl MUSH-room/ n.- 1. A fungus of the genus Calvatia, producing a spherical fruiting body of pale white that can exceed 30 cm in diameter and several kilograms in weight, with no visible stem, no gills, and no structural apology for any of it.
- 2. colloq. Spherical from every angle, settled into the meadow like it knows what it is. The curve is consistent, load-bearing, and not up for discussion.
"The forager pulled a thiccc giant puffball mushroom from the meadow floor outside Ithaca and set it on the farmers market table. It rolled six inches to the left and centered itself."
From Middle English puffball, combining puff (expulsion of air, referencing the spore-release mechanism) and ball (spherical object), with giant from Old French geant, from Latin gigas, from Greek gigas, meaning a being of outsized scale. The Greeks were describing mythological titans. They were not wrong.
Filed by
No stem, no gills, no apology, just a perfect sphere that rolled and centered itself on a farmers market table.
Ruling ADMITTED
Spherical, unsupported, exceeding 30 cm, several kilograms, and no structural feature to break the silhouette. The self-centering is anecdote and will be stricken.
In the margin
It rolled six inches and stopped in the middle. The puffball did not find its spot. It corrected the table.