Nature Atlas

How Nature Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Species

Common Puffball

Fungi

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Lycoperdon perlatum, popularly known as the common puffball, warted puffball, gem-studded puffball or devil's snuff-box, is a species of puffball fungus in the family Agaricaceae. It is a medium-sized puffball with a round fruit body tapering to a wide stalk, off-white with a top covered in short spiny bumps or jewels that are easily rubbed off to leave a netlike pattern on the surface; when mature it becomes brown and a hole opens at the top to release spores in a burst when the body is compressed by touch or falling raindrops. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, growing in fields, gardens and grassy clearings, and is edible when young while the internal flesh is completely white, though care must be taken to avoid confusion with immature fruit bodies of poisonous Amanita species.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.