Puffballs & the like


At maturity, the fruitbodies of the fungi in this group generally contain prodigious quantities of powdery spores. The fruitbodies may be spherical to pear-shaped or somewhat columnar in shape and range from less than a centimetre to over 30 centimetres in extent. Spores are mostly some shade of brown, from pale yellow-brown to dark brown, depending on species.

 

Almost all species produce their fruitbodies on the ground, a few produce them on on wood.

 

In the following hints you see examples of useful identification features and a few of the more commonly seen genera in which at least some species (not necessarily all) show those features.

 

Hints

Spore mass lilac: Calvatia.

Fruitbody over 30 centimetres in diameter: Calvatia.

 

Warning

If you have a flattish fruitbody, with purplish-black powdery spores inside a thin, brittle crust - check the slime mould Fuligo septica.

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Discussion

JohnBundock wrote:
16 Oct 2025
Thanks for your explanation.

Scleroderma sp.
Heinol wrote:
16 Oct 2025
See my comment about https://naturemapr.org/sightings/4699169.

Scleroderma sp.
Heinol wrote:
16 Oct 2025
See my comment about https://naturemapr.org/sightings/4699169.

Scleroderma sp.
Heinol wrote:
16 Oct 2025
For the benefit of other NatureMapr users, I have been in touch with Wendy about this sighting and I suspect it is either Mycenastrum corium or a species of Gastropila (perhaps Gastropila fragilis). They can be confused macroscopically and both are known from a number of countries. The latter would be very interesting since I know of only three reports of Gastropila from Australia. The same comment applies to Scleroderma sp. and Scleroderma sp.

Scleroderma sp.
Heinol wrote:
16 Oct 2025
Not a Scleroderma, which belongs with the puffballs & the like. This has a stem with a cap on top. The upper half of the exposed cross-section shows homogenous flesh, but in the lower half of that exposed cross-section you can see what look like a lot of vertical lines. This fungus is a bolete which means that, if you look at the underside of the cap, you’d see a spongy, pored surface. Each pore is the mouth of a tube that extends a little way back into the cap. The tubes are tightly packed and in the lower half of that cross section, what look likes a mass of vertical lines is really a mass of closely-packed tubes, seen in cross section. This bolete has dried out considerably and become distorted . The cap surface might naturally develop those polygonal ‘plates’ – but it is possible that they are an artefact produced by excessive drying, as the drying tissue ruptures. Given the state of this specimen I can say no more than ‘bolete’.

Scleroderma sp.
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