stump puffballs

This is the first time I've ever seen stump puffballs, a species of puffball toadstools that only grows on rotting wood. The other species of puffballs all grow in the ground.

when you look closely you can see all the spores inside the fungus, just waiting to be puffed out by raindrops or the footsteps of a passing animal.

These puffballs were growing on a dead tree in Colinton Dell alongside the Water of Leith.

For Nature Notes.