13 September 2008 West Sussex. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. Common Name Puffball, fuzz ball Fruiting Body Pestle shaped, decorated with conical warts which fall away with age to reveal a smooth surface decorated with a network, initially white, then brown with age, insides ripening into a powdery spore mass which is released through an apical opening in the thin outer skin, to about 10 cm high Flesh White when young Smell Indistinct Taste Indistinct Season Summer to autumn Distribution Very common Habitat On soil or rotten wood in deciduous woods and with conifers, usually in groups, sometimes tufted Spore Print Olive-brown Microscopic Features Spores spherical, finely warty (3.5-4.5) µm Edibility Edible when white throughout Notes Perlatum means widespread. Lycoperdon derives from either the Latin for Wolf fart, or a corruption of the Latin for white puff. In Southern Italy, and elsewhere, fungi in this genus are commonly known as Wolf's Farts consistent with the former etymology. Both presumably are references to the cloud of spores released from a mature specimen when it is trodden on. 
October 2004 Oxfordshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. 
October 2004 Buckinghamshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. |