Specimen AB#26 (Pigskin Puffball)

I have to admit I was a little skeptical about picking this one up. A sloshing sloppy black mess inside a warty bubble of flesh isn't really my idea of beauty. But as you can probably guess by the fact that I'm identifying it in this blog, I picked it up. And so stuck in your wall we are. 

Figure 1. Bovista pila in all it's... 'glory'

Name: Bovista pila

Family: Lycoperdaceae

Collection Date: 10/11/2011

Habitat: “Grows in cultivated and manured soils as well as in grass and open woods” (Arora, 1986).

Location: Hiram College Field Station

Description: “[Fruiting body] 3-9 cm in diameter and attached to the ground by a small cord or ‘root.’ It has a dark brown to bronze mature spore case” (Arora, 1986).

Collector: Andrew Burns

Key Used: Arora. D., (1986) Mushrooms Demystified 2^nd Edition, Ten Speeds Press, New York, NY

Keying Notes:

Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi… p.52

Lycoperdales & Allies (Puffballs & Earthstars)…p. 677

1b. Fruiting body may rupture in starlike fashion but if so then there is no separate spore case within…2

2b. Spore mass not containing peridioles…4

4b. Peridioles absent…5

5b. Spore mass white when young and normally softening or becoming mushy as it darkens, then becoming powdery…6

6b. Not as above, fruiting body above ground, no internal stalk…7

7b. Spore mass without prominent veins or cords running through it…8

8b. Sterile base absent or rudimentary…10

10b. Fruiting body usually marble-to golfball-sized or occasionally as large as a baseball, usually rupturing through a pore or large mouth; peridium usually rather thin…p. 696, Bovista & Disciseda

1b. Outer layer of peridium not persistent, or if persistent then typically rupturing radially or forming a large mouth at top of spore case…2

2b. Fruiting body not brightly colored…3

3b. Fruiting body not buried…5

5b. Sterile base absent or rudimentary…6

6b. Fruiting body smooth or with small warts or granules when young…7

7b. Fruiting body usually rupturing through a large mouth or tear at maturity…8

8b. Fruiting body typically 3-9 cm broad, usually attached to the ground by a small cord or “root” when young…9

9a. Spore case typically dark brown to bronze-brown or coppery when mature; common in North America…Bovista pila

Correlating Links:

http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Bovista_pila.html