Mosaic Puffball

not listed

NNR - Unranked

not listed

Mosaic Puffball is a large, common, and very widespread puffball. It is the second largest puffball in Minnesota. It occurs worldwide in the temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It occurs across North America but is mostly absent from the Great Plains. It is most common in the east, occasional in Minnesota. It is found from July to October in fields, meadows, pastures, shrubby areas, open woodlands, and woodland edges. It grows on the ground alone, scattered, or in groups. It obtains its nutrients from decaying organic matter (saprobic).

When it first appears, the fruiting body is globe-shaped, white to cream-colored, and 2⅜″ to 4¾″ (6 to 12 cm) in diameter. The outer surface is densely covered with soft, fine, woolly hairs. As the puffball matures, it expands, it changes color, it develops a stem-like base, and the outer surface breaks up into a mosaic pattern of scaly, polygonal patches. This is the feature that gives the puffball its common name. Mature fruiting bodies are dull brown, pear-shaped, top-shaped, or pestle-shaped, 4″ to 10″ (10 to 25 cm) in height, and 2″ to 10″ (5 to 25 cm) in diameter. The upper part is often flat-topped and loaf shaped. Eventually, the upper part disintegrates from the center outward, forming a crater-like opening, and exposing the inner spore-bearing mass (gleba).

The gleba is white, soft, and cheesy at first. It soon turns yellowish to olive, then finally olive brown or dark brown and powdery. It is edible only when it is pure white throughout.

The upper part tapers gradually to the base. The base is very large and prominent, contributing up to one-half of the fruiting body’s total height. It persists long after the upper part has completely disintegrated and the spores have dispersed. The purplish-brown, cup-like, persistent base has fooled mycologists (and this writer) into believing it was a unique species.

Fields, meadows, pastures, open woodlands, and woodland edges

July to October

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Common in the east, occasional in Minnesota

Order
The family Lycoperdaceae was formerly placed in the order Lycoperdales. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies resulted in a resturcturing of fungal taxonomy. Genera formerly in the families Tulostomataceae, Battarreaceae, Lycoperdaceae, and Mycenastraceae have been moved to Agaricaceae. The move has been universally accepted.

Family
This species was formerly classified as Lycoperdon utriforme, and that genus was formerly placed in the family Lycoperdaceae. Recent phylogenetic analysis showed that family to be a subgroup within the family Agaricaceae. The move has not been universally accepted. Index Fungorum, MycoBank, Catalog of Life, and NCBI all include Lycoperdon in the family Lycoperdaceae.

Genus
This species was originally classified as Lycoperdon utriforme in 1791. It has been described several times under different names, and has been transferred by mycologists a few times into other genera. Over the years it has gone by many names under several genera. A recent morphological and molecular study (V. Demoulin and Y. Rebriev, 2017) sought to clarify the correct placement. It determined that small morphological differences justify the transfer of Lycoperdon utriforme to the new genus Bovistella. The transfer has been widely but not universally accepted. Mosaic Puffball is currently referred to by various sources as Lycoperdon utriforme, Calvatia caelata, Calvatia utriformis, Handkea utriformis, and Bovistella utriformis.

Large Whitish Fungi...

It didn’t have much of a stem. Maybe it’s one of those Puffball mushrooms. It was maybe 6-8 inches across. Never seen one before on a prairie. 7-6-23 Norman Co. MN.

Mosaic Puffball...

Here is another one … I was moving the grasses out of the way to show it better in this image.

Share your video of this fungus.

Location: Norman Co., Mn.

It didn’t have much of a stem. Maybe it’s one of those Puffball mushrooms. It was maybe 6-8 inches across. Never seen one before on a prairie. 7-6-23 Norman Co. MN.