Toxic
Common earthball
Scleroderma citrinum
The character that does the work
Thick warty rind and dark marbled interior. A true puffball is thin-skinned and pure white inside, like a marshmallow.
The specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
3 to 10 cm, a hard rounded ball, dirty yellow-ochre, with a thick coarsely scaly rind and no stem to speak of.
02Underside
None. It is a closed ball.
03Stem, and the base
Absent or a knot of rooting mycelium.
04Flesh, cut
CUT IT: firm, purple-black and marbled with white veins from an early age. Never the uniform white of an edible puffball.
05Spore print
06Where it grows
Mossy ground, heath, woodland, often on poor sandy soil.
When to look
Typically Jul to Dec in the northern hemisphere. Fruiting swings by weeks with rainfall and by a month or more with latitude, so this is when to look rather than when it will be there.
Very common across Europe and North America.
What is worth knowing about it
The most frequent puffball mistake, and occasionally sold to restaurants as truffle by people who should know better. Causes strong gastrointestinal upset. The test is one second with a knife and it never fails: cut it, and look at the colour.
Confused with
- Giant puffball
- Common puffball
- Truffles, in the worst cases
This page tells you what to check. It does not tell you the mushroom in your hand is that species, and it cannot. If you are not certain, do not eat it. If you have already eaten something and feel unwell, contact a poison centre and keep an uncooked specimen.
Others in this group