It is off-white with a top covered in short spiny bumps or "jewels", which are easily rubbed off to leave a netlike pattern on the surface.

When mature it becomes brown, and a hole in the top opens to release spores in a burst when the body is compressed by touch or falling raindrops.

It is edible when young and the internal flesh is completely white, although care must be taken to avoid confusion with immature fruit bodies of poisonous Amanita species.

[14] Because some indigenous peoples believed that the spores caused blindness, the puffball has some local names such as "blindman's bellows" and "no-eyes".

The spines, which are whitish, gray, or brown, can be easily rubbed off, and leave reticulate pock marks or scars after they are removed.

[18] In maturity, the exoperidium at the top of the puffball sloughs away, revealing a pre-formed hole (ostiole) in the endoperidium, through which the spores can escape.

[19] In young puffballs, the internal contents, the gleba, is white and firm, but turns brown and powdery as the spores mature.

The capillitia (threadlike filaments in the gleba in which spores are embedded) are yellow-brown to brownish in color, lack septae,[21] and measure 3–7.5 μm in diameter.

L. nettyanum, found in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, is covered in granular patches, but these granules adhere more strongly to the surface than those of L. perlatum.

The widely distributed and common L. umbrinum has spines that do not leave scars when rubbed off,[24] a gleba that varies in color from dark brown to purple-brown at maturity, and a purple-tinged base.

[12] L. excipuliforme is larger and grayer, and, in mature individuals, the upper portion of its fruit body breaks down completely to release its spores.

[13] A widespread species with an almost cosmopolitan distribution,[18] it has been reported from Africa (Kenya, Rwanda,[25] Tanzania[26]), Asia (China,[27] Himalayas,[28] Japan,[29] southern India[22] Iran[30]), Australia,[13] Europe,[31] New Zealand,[32] and South America (Brazil).

[41] In one 1977 study, samples collected from grassy areas near the side of an interstate highway in Connecticut were shown to have high concentrations of cadmium and lead.

This can be avoided by slicing fruit bodies vertically and inspecting them for the internal developing structures of a mushroom, which would indicate the poisonous Amanita.

[61] These results corroborate an earlier study that additionally reported antibacterial activity against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Mycobacterium smegmatis.

[62] Extracts of the puffball have also been reported to have antifungal activity against Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, Aspergillus fumigatus, Alternaria solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Verticillium dahliae.