Puffballs

The variety of puffball mushrooms is very broad. Some grow on stalks, some don’t. Some are large (2m circumference, 20Kg) others are tiny. They grow in rainforests and in arid regions. Some grow singly, others in clusters. 

 Puffballs do not have a disc-cap and spore-bearing gills: they consist of a spherical-shaped sac that contains the spore within. Some have a hard outer layer that eventually decays or peels back to expose the spores to the elements. Others have a small opening in the top of the cap through which the spores are ejected upon contact. Most (all?) are saprophytic: they grow on dead organic matter.

Pisolithus sp - Horse Dung fungus

Pisolithus species have a hard outer skin that slowly erodes away exposing the spores. These puffballs are often found protruding through hard gravelly ground. Because of their appearance, they have the common name Horse Dung Fungi. There is some evidence of some examples protruding through a sealed road! 

Geastrum sp - Earth Stars

Earth Star fungi belong to the Geastrum group of puffballs. Earth Stars have a double layer of tissue. The outer layer splits and peels backwards to expose the puffball with the spores inside. In some species, the outer layer curls back and makes firm contact with the ground sufficient enough to raise the spore-sac several centimetres above ground level. The elevated position improves the process of spreading the spores. 

Lycoperdon sp - Pear-shaped Puffballs

Lycoperdon puffballs often begin with a covering of fine outer spines that eventually drop off and leave a smooth-skinned spherical sac with a hole in the centre. Contact from an animal, even an insect or a raindrop causes the spores to be ejected through the aperture. (‘Lyco’ = wolf and ‘perdon’ = to pass wind, so we have the wolf f..t mushroom – who says mycologists don’t have a sense of humour?) 

 There are numerous factual, historical, cultural and mythological stories relating to puffballs. Each puffball can emit millions, even trillions of spores. Cherokee Indians used the spores to help heal sores and burns. Legend has it that Earth Stars were stars that had fallen to the Earth during a supernatural event. (No detail is ‘spored’ when an ‘ethnomycologist’ goes to work!) 

 The fungi kingdom is amazing.