A puffball at Mulligans Flat
Identification history
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User's notes
This was a particularly fragile puffball in that it appeared to have a thin outer surface which was very easily dented whilst clearing debris from around it. Found on sandy soil adjacent to an area with pooled surface water from recent rains. Thanks to Barbara for the initial sighting.
1 comment
Heino1
wrote:
20 Jun 2024
Puffballs such as this have very thin skins, easily depressed. If depressed enough spores are forced to puff out of the hole. In these puffing puffballs the skin that you often see is simply the inner of two layers. The outer layer is evanescent and consists of a layer of granules, warts or spines (depending on species). The outer layer is easily eroded but may persist on the lower, more protected area. In your photos you some traces, the greyer areas on the dark brown surface. Initially the whole puffball would have been covered with that greyish 'fuzz'. I can't tell for sure whether the fuzz consists of granules, warts or spines. I'm inclined to think either short, broad pyramidal spines or perhaps what gives the appearance of a single, broad pyramid is a group of 4-5 narrower pyramidal spines, each bending a little so as to make the tips of those 4-5 join. You see an example of the latter here: https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/4300540.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.172797-35.168012
- Altitude 659.2m
- Maps Mulligans Flat
- Places Forde, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 18 Jun 2024 02:21 PM Recorded on
- TimL Recorded by
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Collections
Fungi Simple spore sac, with an apical hole [puffballs] Puffballs & the like TimL
Species information
- Bovista Scientific name
- A puffball Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 903.97m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
