Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: earthball

mushrooms with an earthball morphology

Scleroderma citrinum 1

Fungus Fact

#217: Scleroderma citrinum, The Pigskin Poison Puffball

Scleroderma citrinum is a common earthball that appears in a variety of habitats around the world. The mushroom is one of the most often collected Scleroderma species, so one of its common names (mostly used in Europe) is “The Common Earthball.” S. citrinum has a couple other common names: “The Pigskin Poison Puffball” and the less common “Golden Scleroderma.” Both of these names refer to the mushroom’s outer surface, which is yellow-brown and has a scaly texture reminiscent of a football (American style, often called a “pigskin”). The mushroom’s thick warty outer skin makes it stand out among other earthballs and its interior that quickly turns blackish easily separates it from the true puffballs.

Inocybe rimosa 0

Uncategorized

2017 Mycorrhizal Mushroom Map:
1 Year, 1 Yard, 499 Mushrooms

In October of 2016, I stepped out into my back yard and found it carpeted with medium-sized brown mushrooms. Apparently, I had nothing better to do that day than attempt to identify these boring nondescript mushrooms, so I sat down with a field guide and managed to key them out to Inocybe rimosa. This was a surprising result; most of the boring brown mushrooms that pop up in yards are saprobic, but Inocybe is a mycorrhizal genus. Since I. rimosa is mycorrhizal, there is only a very limited area in my yard that it can grow. This made me wonder, “Will it grow in the same place next year?” There was only one way to answer that question: keep track of where mushrooms appear in my yard. I logged all 227 I. rimosa mushrooms and waited eagerly for 2017, when I would map all the mycorrhizal mushrooms that appeared.

Pisolithus arrhizus peridioles 0

Fungus Fact

#119: Pisolithus arrhizus, the Dyeball

“Our next contestant in the Ugly Mushroom Contest performs countless of hours of community service every year and is an accomplished artist. Its goal in life is to make the world a better place and form lasting relationships with those around it. Give it up for…Pisolithus arrhizus! [applause]” There seems to be little doubt among mushroom hunters that P. arrhizus is one of the ugliest mushrooms in the world. The fruiting bodies of older specimens become distorted and can be mistaken for anything from animal feces to decomposing tree stumps. Despite its unsightly appearance, this earthball is used to dye wool, thus earning it the common name, “Dyeball.” The fungus is also prized by foresters for its ability to form robust mycorrhizas in extremely poor soil conditions.

#119: Pisolithus arrhizus, the Dyeball [Archived] 1

Archived

#119: Pisolithus arrhizus, the Dyeball [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. “Our next contestant in the Ugly Mushroom contest performs thousands of hours of community service every year and is an accomplished artist. Its goal in life is to make the world a better place and form lasting relationships with those around it.  Give it up for…Pisolithus arrhizus! [applause]”  There seems to be little doubt among people that arrhizus is one of the ugliest mushrooms in the world.  The fruiting bodies of older specimens become distorted and can be mistaken for anything from animal poop to decomposing tree stumps.  Despite its unsightly appearance, this earthball can be used to dye wool, thus earning it the common name, “Dyeball.”  The fungus is also prized by gardeners and foresters for its ability to form robust mycorrhizae in extremely poor soil conditions.

#042: Mushroom Morphology: Earthballs 2

Fungus Fact

#042: Mushroom Morphology: Earthballs

This group of mushrooms goes by a variety of common names, including “earthballs,” “earth balls,” and “false puffballs.” Additionally, all of these mushrooms belong to the family Sclerodermataceae and could casually be referred to as “sclerodermas.”*  Using these terms to distinguish earthballs from puffballs is a fairly recent development, so many earthballs are still commonly called puffballs.  Visually, immature earth balls can look similar to puffballs.  If you are collecting puffballs to eat, make sure you know how to tell the difference between true puffballs and the usually poisonous earthballs.  The main difference between earthballs and puffballs is that, unlike the puffballs, earthballs do not release their spores through a regular pore.  Instead, the peridium (outer layer) cracks and tears irregularly.  Like all gasteromycetes (fungi whose spores mature internally), earthballs have lost the ability to forcibly discharge their spores.  The spores mature in the center of the earthball, enclosed by...