Fungi encyclopedia
A reference for the fungi you actually find
Each entry describes one species the way you meet it in the field — the cap and its surface, what sits underneath, the stipe and its base, the spore print colour, the substrate it fruits from, and the species most often confused with it.
Showing results for “Giant puffball”
Giant Puffball
Puffballs
An unmistakable white sphere that can reach the size of a football or larger, appearing in grassland and hedgerows. It has no stipe, no gills and no cap, and its interior ripens from firm white to a powdery olive-brown spore mass.
Spore print · Olive-brown (spore mass)
Western Giant Puffball
Puffballs
A very large white puffball of dry western rangeland, its surface broken into a mosaic of flattened polygonal warts. The interior is uniformly white when young and turns to olive-brown powder with age.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Giant Funnel
Gilled
A massive white funnel-shaped mushroom of open grassland that forms huge fairy rings, with tough flesh and very crowded decurrent gills.
Spore print · White
Giant Club
Corals & Clubs
A conspicuous unbranched club up to 30 cm tall, shaped like a pestle with a broad wrinkled head, ochre-yellow to tan and bruising purple-brown where handled.
Spore print · White to pale ochre
Common Puffball
Puffballs
A pear- to club-shaped white puffball studded with conical spines that fall away to leave a pockmarked pattern, releasing spores through a pore at the top. It is one of the most frequently encountered woodland puffballs.
Spore print · Olive-brown spore mass
Leathery Puffball
Puffballs
A large ball with an unusually thick, corky-leathery rind that cracks and splits into stiff star-like lobes as it opens. Found on nutrient-rich, disturbed soil in dry open country.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Spiny Puffball
Puffballs
A small round puffball densely armed with long dark brown spines that converge in tufts, leaving a net-like pattern where they fall. It is typically found on rich humus beneath beech.
Spore print · Purple-brown spore mass
Giant Polypore
Polypores
A huge overlapping rosette of tan-brown zoned fans at the foot of beech and other broadleaves, with a fine white pore surface that turns black wherever it is touched.
Spore print · White
Giant Cypress Agaricus
Gilled
A giant west-coast Agaricus of coastal cypress and pine groves, with a heavy brown-scaled cap that can reach 30 cm and a thick, patchy ring. Fruits in the winter rains.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Brown Puffball
Puffballs
A round grassland puffball whose white outer skin peels away to reveal a shining purple-black inner ball. Larger than the Grey Puffball and equally prone to breaking loose and rolling.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Pestle Puffball
Puffballs
A tall club- or pestle-shaped puffball with a rounded fertile head raised on a long thick sterile stalk. The head wall breaks away completely at maturity, leaving the stalk standing in the litter.
Spore print · Olive-brown spore mass
Grey Puffball
Puffballs
A small round grassland puffball whose white papery outer skin flakes away to expose a smooth lead-grey inner ball. It detaches from the soil and rolls about, scattering spores from a torn apical mouth.
Spore print · Purplish-brown
Meadow Puffball
Puffballs
A small flat-topped white puffball of short turf, distinguished by a membranous internal diaphragm that separates the spore mass from the sterile base. Mature bodies open by a wide ragged mouth.
Spore print · Olive-brown spore mass
Sculpted Puffball
Puffballs
A firm white ball of western mountain conifer forests, covered in low pyramidal felty warts each marked by a darker central point. The interior is white and homogeneous before turning to olive-brown powder.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Mosaic Puffball
Puffballs
A stout grassland puffball whose white surface cracks into a mosaic of polygonal scales, later collapsing to leave a persistent bowl-shaped base. It is typical of upland pasture, heath and dunes.
Spore print · Olive-brown spore mass
Tumbling Puffball
Puffballs
A smooth round puffball that sheds its white outer skin to reveal a bronze to purplish-grey shell, hanging from a single tough cord until it breaks free and rolls. Common in open woods and pasture across North America.
Spore print · Olive-brown to dark brown
Umber-brown Puffball
Puffballs
A small pear-shaped puffball of mossy conifer woodland, clothed in slender dark brown spines and opening by a neat apical pore. The interior matures from white to umber-brown powder.
Spore print · Umber to olive-brown
Skull-shaped Puffball
Puffballs
A large, smooth, pale tan puffball shaped like an inverted skull, with a strongly wrinkled tapering base and an olive-brown mature spore mass. The upper wall flakes away in papery sheets.
Spore print · Olive-brown spore mass
Pear-shaped Puffball
Puffballs
A small, smooth, pear-shaped puffball that fruits in crowded troops directly on rotting stumps and logs, joined at the base by conspicuous white mycelial cords. It is the only common puffball reliably found on wood.
Spore print · Olive-brown (spore mass)
Purple-spored Puffball
Puffballs
A large grassland puffball whose mature spore mass turns a distinctive purple-brown and whose sterile base persists through winter as a vase-shaped cup. The skin cracks into polygonal patches as it expands.
Spore print · Purple to purple-brown spore mass
Stalked Puffball-in-Aspic
Puffballs
A small, brilliant red spore ball with star-shaped lips, sheathed in clear jelly and raised on a stalk of tangled gelatinous cords. It grows on bare mossy clay banks in oak-rich hardwood forest.
Spore print · Pale yellowish to whitish
Gem-studded Puffball
Puffballs
A small white to buff puffball shaped like an inverted pear, covered in detachable cone-shaped spines that leave a net-like pattern of scars when they fall. It releases spores through a neat apical pore in the top of the head.
Spore print · Olive-brown (spore mass)
Spectacular Rustgill
Gilled
A big, showy orange-tawny agaric that fruits in massive clusters at the base of broadleaf stumps, with a fibrillose scaly cap, ringed stipe and rusty orange spore print.
Spore print · Rusty orange-brown
Potato Earthball
Puffballs
A pale, almost smooth earthball that looks like a small buried potato, with a thin rind that cracks into fine scurfy patches. The interior ripens from white to a purple-brown dust.
Spore print · Purple-brown to blackish (spore mass)