UPDATED WITH ANSWER:What in the World is This?

Last week, this blog posed the following question:

"What is the beautiful, seemingly exotic object pictured above?"

The blog entry continued:

"If you've visited Farmlab recently, you'll already know.

"If you haven't, stop on by. Or, visit this blog again in the coming week for an updated answer."

Well, as promised, here's that 'updated answer,' along with accompanying information about what they're doing at Farmlab. Words below come courtesy of Farmlab agriculturalist Jaime Lopez Wolters:

"These oyster mushrooms grown on Not A Cornfield corn leaves and cobs are the result of Paul Stamets' day-long workshop conducted under Spring on April 14th. The shredded corn material was pasturized at 160-degrees Faranheit, innoculated with mushroom spawn and stuffed into plastic bags.

"After two weeks, the fully colonized bags were hung in a humidity chamber to induce sprouting. Up to date we have harvested eight pounds of oyster mushrooms.

"While the mushroom will be eaten, the remaining myclelium will be used in mycoremediation experiments. That is to say, they will help us remove pollutants from soil and water."

View more photosof the oyster mushrooms.