Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Monday - October 01, 2007
From: Lawton, OK
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Fungi in the flower bed
Answered by: Joe Marcus
QUESTION:
Found a strange thing in my flower bed, while tilling. It was egg shape, white, with a little purple, soft but tough like leather on the outside, with a small 2 inch root. Curiosity got me so I cut it open. Full of clear gel very slimmy and a hard brownish green center ball. Cut hard center open brown on inside with black dot in center. Looked more like some embryo than plant. Any idea. Thank you.ANSWER:
From your description, it sounds like you've found a developing puffball fungus. Since fungi are non-vascular plants, they are outside our area of expertise. However, they are fascinating. A good place to start an investigation of fungi would be on the Wikipedia site. You will probably find Tom Volk's Fungi website particularly useful.More Plant Identification Questions
Plant identification in Andover MA
November 12, 2009 - I live in MA. I have found a tree that produces an avocado like fruit with a round grooved pit. There are several of these trees in the fields where I walk and the ground is littered with these fruits...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
May 24, 2009 - It is a small, thin vine growing in the grass in the shadier parts of the lawn. Every 3-4 inches it has two thin stems about three inches long sprouting from almost exactly the same place on the vine...
view the full question and answer
More information about Trillium in New Jersey
June 23, 2011 - Hi, Nan. FYI.
The Trillium seeds in question came from the State of Alabama. If you have an interest in seeing photos of this Trillium and two others in my garden, which are different and which I be...
view the full question and answer
Differences between Ratibida columnifera and Ratibida peduncularis
June 03, 2010 - How do you tell the difference between Ratibida columnifera and Ratibida peduncularis. On NPIN columnifera has red and penduncularis is solid yellow, but I have seen pictures listed as columnifera tha...
view the full question and answer
Identification of perennial with dark red/purple flowers
November 17, 2011 - Need to identify a lovely perennial here in Norfolk, Virginia. It reseeds itself, spreads, and lingers into the late fall. It has rather thick, dark green, alternate spatulate leaves at the base wit...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |