Calvatia sp.

a puffball at Paddys River, ACT

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Identification history

	Calvatia sp.	22 Feb 2016	Heino
	Pisolithus sp.	14 Feb 2016	KenT

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User's notes

It has erupted at the side of the road

4 comments

Heino wrote:

15 Feb 2016

The shape, markedly wrinkled but unbroken skin and colouration makes me think more of a Calvatia. If I'm right the whole thing would have been fairly soft to the touch, with a finger able to depress it at any point. Not so with Pisolithus. Any comment on that point?

KenT wrote:

15 Feb 2016

It seemed more solid to touch than soft (after I took the images). I had considered Calvatia but I could not remember if they disrupted the ground around them as much as this when the fruit body formed. Whereas I had seen what I assumed were Pisolithus breaking through along Corin road on the way out in the morning. I assumed Calvatia expand at the ground surface and Pisolithus through the ground surface, but possibly wrong on that one. There was no tidying up of the area before these images were recorded, it wasn't needed

Heino wrote:

19 Feb 2016

I haven't paid any attention to the amount of disturbance around the base of a Calvatia compared to that around a Pisolithus (which I have seen poking out of the ground with virtually no visible disturbance). Often when I see a Calvatia it's amongst grasses or in leaf/twig litter, so it wouldn't be easy to see the level of disturbance without creating more. However, that wrinkly surface seems very un-Pisolithus-like.

KenT wrote:

20 Feb 2016

I think I'm now leaning towards a Calvatia. When I prodded this I only touched the side and its possible I got the diaphragm or sterile base area. I have now posted http://canberranaturemap.org/Community/Sightings/Details/2459153 which was mostly soft all over but there were some firm areas and I see some similarity between these two sightings.

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