| Figure 1: Lycoperdon perlatum releasing spores at Chagrin Reservation |
| Name:Lycoperdon perlatum, Common Puffball |
Family: Agaricaceae
Collection Date: September 12, 2011
Habitat: Shaded woods upon leafy litter
Location: South Chagrin Reservation
Description: Round and coarse, about 4 inches in diameter. Open at top, releasing olive colored dusty spores when squeezed. This specimen is aged, as it is releasing spores.
Collector: Taylor Summerfield
Key used: Arora, David, 1986. Mushrooms Demystified, 2nd Edition, Ten Speed Press, New York, New York.
Key Steps: Key to the Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi
1. Spores produced on mother cells called basidia; fruiting body variously shaped (see pp.52-54)
...p.54; Fruiting body round to oval or pearshaped, or the outer skin splitting into starlike rays; interior (spore mass) firm when young but powdery or dusty at maturity; spores borne inside a spore case or numerous lentil-like capsules; stalk absent or present only as a narrowed sterile base or rootlike fibers; usually growing above the ground...Puffballs and Earthstars, p. 677
Key to the Lycoperdales and Allies, p. 679:
1. Not as above (fruiting body may rupture in starlike fashion, but if so then there is no separate spore case within)...2
2. Spore mass non containing peridoles...4
4. Peridoles absent, spores produces in a single large chamber (the spore case)...5
5. skin (peridium) thick or thin; spore mass white when young and normally softening or becoming mushy as it darkens, then becoming powdery; basidia usually borne in a hymenium; capillitium usually present...6
6. Fruiting body not thick skinned, not rupturing, usually underground...7
7. Spore mass without prominent veins or cords running through it...8
8. Typically growing in woods...11
11. Spines absent...13
13. Not only in Pacific and Northwest...14
14. Mature spore mass olive to brown...L. perlatum, p. 693
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