"Lycoperdon perlatum", popularly known as the common puffball, warted puffball, gem-studded puffball, or the devil's snuff-box, is a species of puffball fungus in the family Agaricaceae.
Similar species: Agaricales
By Barry
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Uploaded Nov 5, 2017. Captured Nov 4, 2017 16:21 in Friedrichshafener Str. 73, 88214 Ravensburg, Germany.
comments (8)
Many, though not all, of them are edible - they start out white and firm to the touch and if you cut them open they are quite solid and white all of the way through - inside they look very much like the button mushrooms you can get at the grocery store, but as they age, rather than the spores forming on gills, they form in the center and the ball becomes soft - they usually start to look a bit wrinkly and feel squishy a little like a bag of cornstarch, before the spore hole opens. (here's one that someone cut open before it's was ready to puff, but after it had started forming spores - https://forum.downsizer.net/archive/is-this-puffball-too-old-to-eat__o_t__t_82856.html)
Some related, but non-puff ball mushrooms puff too - earth stars and earth balls form similarly, but earth stars have a collar that splits to form a star around the ball and earth balls have an outer skin around a differently colored center (usually dark colored), even when they are young. Posted 7 years ago