| MadSci Network: Botany |
Puffballs are a type of fungus. The "smoke" of puffballs are the tiny spores. Fungal spores often cause allergies, so a person who happened to be allergic to puffball spores could certainly suffer by inhaling the spores. A person who is not allergic would probably find them irritating as well, as they would if they breathed dust. It seems unlikely a brief exposure would have any lasting effects for a person who is not allergic. The main danger of fungi comes from people collecting wild fungi or wild mushrooms and eating poisonous types because they misidentify them. People often eat puffballs and consider them a delicacy. However, eating any fungi collected from the wild should be done only if you are absolutely sure that you have correctly identified them and they are nontoxic types. References Giant Puffballs Puffballs or Footballs Puffball Home Page Earthball, Puffball Killer Mushrooms
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