I haven’t found much fungi lately so it was nice, during a walk earlier this week, to spot this little colony of Stump puffballs (Lycoperdon pyriforme).

I had a chuckle at this explanation of its scientific name from the First Nature website:

The genus name Lycoperdon literally means ‘wolf’s flatulence’ and just begs the question who got close enough to a wolf and stayed there long enough to become an expert on such matters. For most of us, surely such an odour cannot be a practical diagnostic feature for identifying the Stump Puffball, Lycoperdon pyriforme.
Nothing at all to do with funeral pyres, the specific epithet pyriforme comes from Latin and simply means pear shaped.