Pisolithus sp. (Pisolithus)

A mature Pisolithus fruit body is cylindrical to pear-shaped to globose in shape, from just a few to over 20 centimetres in maximum length, white to brown externally and with brown, powdery spores present and exposed. The powdery spores are easily blown away by even slight breezes. If you section an immature fruit body you see something like this inside: http://www.cpbr.gov.au/fungi/images-captions/pisolithus-species-0067.html. There are numerous small, firm 'grains' (or peridioles), packed tightly. As the spores within a peridiole mature the peridiole breaks down to leave just the powdery spores. The uppermost peridioles mature first, then the ones lower then, then the ones after that and so on. If left undisturbed, most of the fruit body would eventually disappear as successive zones of maturing spores are blown away. All that would be left would be a sterile basal stump. Initially there is a thin skin, but this is brittle, breaks easily and falls of in flakes as the spores mature. The upper, spore-bearing part (or gleba) sits atop a stem (buried in some species, with a very obvious above-ground part in others).

Key to local species

 Above-ground stem height more than 1/2 gleba diameter........ microcarpus

 Above-ground stem height less than 1/2 gleba diameter

       skin of mature fruit body brown to black.......... marmoratus

       skin of mature fruit body white to cream......... albus

The skin of marmoratus may be mottled.

Taken from: P. Leonard & S. McMullan-Fisher. (2013). Pisolithus in Queensland, Fungimap Newsletter 49, pages 4-8. See also the Pisolithus entries at:  

http://qldfungi.org.au/resources-2/foq-main-page/foq-species-list/puff-balls