"Earthstars"

All the rain during the past few weeks has filled my yard with mushrooms of every size and shape imaginable. Last year this one appeared. This was a photo post in the SP Star back then. 

 A couple of weeks ago I invited one of my neighbors to come and check out my small prairie restoration project. As he was about to leave we spotted these mushrooms. They were within a few feet of my front door and had gone unnoticed by me. Researching under fungus, it didn’t take long to find out their most appropriate name – “Earthstars.” They are in the puffball family but inedible, although Earthstars were used medicinally by Native Americans. The Blackfoot tribe called them ka-ka-toos or “fallen stars.”

 

   The Cherokee would put them on the navels of newborns until the umbilical cord withered.

Isn't it interesting that so many of the things we find fascinating also caught the eye of the Native Americans?