Puffballs/Earthballs growing out of tarmac

that’s not logic – that’s guessing

I was joking!

I did look more carefully, but this photo is all I have now as the others disappeared from my computer and I had to go out after dark to take that one.

I’m finding that the site doesn’t focus on identification so much, rather picking out everyone’s flaws. I wonder if it’s just me. I’m quite disappointed at the moment. This site is a great idea.

I think Chris is trying to help you by getting you to work out your own IDs. Many people, like Chris and Leif spend a lot of time looking through books, specialist literature and keys to help us get our IDs. Please remember that they do this for FREE. so if sometimes they try to teach you to improve your own analytic approach, ie to apply an investigative mind, don’t complain, thank them ! – sometimes they use a fairly blunt approach… have you ever been to Yorkshire? I’ve been scolded a few times, but its always done from a teaching point of view or else it’s just teasing.

Don’t you dare suggest I’m from Yorkshire. 😆 Otherwise, yes, good points.

If I have to work it out myself, then I guess I’ll never know what this is. I’ve looked in Phillips but couldn’t find a match, which is why I put it on here.

To be honest, I can only tell the difference in specimens which are releasing spores. Puffballs release spores from a central hole, whereas Earthballs split irregularly, ie look like they are breaking apart. I don’t know how to tell the difference in younger fruit bodies.

Don’t you dare suggest I’m from Yorkshire. 😆 Otherwise, yes, good points.

Oops, not from Lancashire are you? (you haven’t filled in your profile!)

If I have to work it out myself, then I guess I’ll never know what this is. I’ve looked in Phillips but couldn’t find a match, which is why I put it on here.

Hi Jimmy,

Don’t take what people are saying as off-putting – take it as constructive criticism (or gentle kick-up-the backside type teasing! ).

People are simply trying to get you to make your own best efforts at ID’ing before asking for help.

You are definitely learning things – It is clear from some of your recent threads that you are beginning to get to grips with the subject, and some of your microscope photos are pretty good! – I’ve looked at your desmid photos and daphnia etc. and they aren’t bad at all.

(Just make sure to double-check that you’re always using the right settings when using the measurement software for spores etc. )

Keep going at this rate and you are on the road to building up a solid knowledge base to progress from.

However, when you put a photo up, with no detailed description of size/habitat etc. etc., and no mention of what you’ve already done to try to discover what it is, it looks as though you are simply wandering around taking photos, and then asking others to ID things for you.

If you had said, for example, something like: –

“I found these, they were growing out of mossy covered tarmac path in a deciduous wood with Beech/Oak/Birch nearby, but I couldn’t see if they were actually growing from wood. The biggest one was about XYZcm across. They had what looked like clumps of spines rather than scales, but they are not like anything I’ve seen before and I can’t find anything like them in my fungi book(s). I’ve brought one home, in case I need to look for some specific characteristic, and I’m hoping that someone can point me in the right direction . . . . . “.

People would at least know that you had made some sort of attempt – and might be more inclined to spend their own time trying to help you.

None of us are infallible, and I still sometimes make basic errors by not getting all the right info at site, or forgetting to take a sample home or whatever, (and, as a photographer, I find it very frustrating when I take what I think is a good photo – but I don’t know what species I’ve photographed ), but letting people know exactly what I have done to try to ID something, is the least I can do whenever I’m asking for help.

Regards,

Mike.