Unverified

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’.

Thanks for your explanation.