Apioperdon pyriforme (Lycoperdon pyriforme)
is a pear-shaped to spherical, with short pyrimidal whitish spines that come off as the puffball enlarges. Flesh is initially white and firm, but once the spores start to develop the interior becomes softer and gradually darken from yellowish to dark olive-brown. Hole develops at top where mature spores are released primarily as a result of impact with rain drops. Attached to substrate with rhizomorphs (strands of compacted mycelia). Unlike Lycoperdon perlatum, which is terrestrial, they grow in clumps on decaying branches, stumps and logs of both deciduous trees and conifers. Edible when firm and pure white inside. This is a gasteromycete, or stomach fungi in the Agaricaceae family of the Agaricales order of the Basidiomycota division.
Apioperdon pyriforme
Apioperdon pyriforme