Why am I so Obsessed with this Mushroom?

via GIPHY

Yesterday as I was walking into my house I stumbled upon the coolest mushroom I've ever seen.

First of all, a lot of Smurfs could fit into this thing. It would be a Smurf mansion.

It looks like a big weird textured puffball. It took everything in me not to try to pop it, but I didn't know what would happen if I did. For all I know a million spores (do mushrooms have spores?) could have flown into the air. That wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

I saw it again this morning and was quite happy no one had destroyed my new fascination.

Of course I turned to Google to find out what this amazing mushroom is called.

According to my excellent Google skills the mushroom in question is called an earth ball aka poison puffball.

Yes, it is poisonous and not as cool as a puffball.

My preliminary Google search did me wrong and made me believe I found a puffball. If you rupture a puffball billions of spores explode out and it looks pretty cool. This one however, doesn't do that.

So for now, I will admire the big ol' earth ball every time I walk past.

Side note, iPhone photography for the win!