Friday, September 17, 2010

Porcupine Egg (260/365)

2010 09 16 IMG_3494w 
If you start throwing hedgehogs under me, I shall throw a couple of porcupines under you.

Nikita Khrushchev (First secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1894-1971)

TIME:  6:47 PM
PLACE:  School playground
SUBJECT:  American sweet gum tree fruit

This is a photo that I took yesterday at the school open house.  The tree with the octopus roots is an American sweet gum tree.  This is its fruit which is also known as a “gumball”, “monkey ball”, “space bug”, "porcupine eggs” or as my kids call them when they turn brown, “cocoa puffs”.  I remember gathering up tons of these spiky balls with my brothers and the neighborhood kids and then we would heave them at each other.  Take it from me, those suckers sting.

2 comments:

Mari said...

I've never seen one of these before. I bet they do sting!

bentonflocke said...

As Mari said, I´ve also never seen one of it.

wow - great roots of the tree!