Fungus “prettymouth”

Some strange puffball mushroom? Or yet another parasitic plant? The "prettymouth" fungus is not easy to spot — and it’s just as hard to immediately understand what it actually is.

A swollen, almost white little sphere, here and there covered with flaky patches. On top rises an exquisite, comb-like ornament of coral color. After examining a couple of these little spheres, I began to understand the purpose of the opening crowned with those tiny ridges.

But I had jumped to conclusions (thinking it was related to a puffball), and my lightest touch triggered a burst of delicate, pearl-white spores. The powdery cloud shot out of the opening so abundantly that, unfortunately, I couldn’t capture this beautiful moment on video again.

Later, we encountered Calostoma more than once, but they had not yet reached the stage of spore release — the very moment when you can witness that little bit of magic again.