The Fungi World (279) : Common Puffball

The Fungi World (279) : Common Puffball

Common Puffball is a fungus with a wide cosmopolitan distribution that has been reported all over Europe, Africa (Tanzania), Asia (Himalayas and Japan), Australia, South America (Brazil) and North America, where it ranges from Alaska to Mexico.

This fungus is always off-white when young and becomes brownish in its mature stage.

At the end of its life, a perforation in the top opens and its powdery olive-green spores are massively released when the body is compressed by rain drops, falling nuts, etc.....

An often used nickname for this fungus is 'devil's snuff-box'

Dutch name : Parelstuifzwam
German name : Flaschenstäubling
Latin name : Lycoperdon perlatum