Puffball

Puffballs are a type of fungus featuring a ball-shaped fruit body that (when mature) bursts on contact or impact, releasing a cloud of dust-like spores into the surrounding area.

As the spores mature, they form a mass called a gleba in the centre of the fruitbody that is often of a distinctive color and texture.

Puffballs and similar forms are thought to have evolved convergently (that is, in numerous independent events) from Hymenomycetes by gasteromycetation, through secotioid stages.

[4] While most puffballs are not poisonous, some often look similar to young agarics, and especially the deadly Amanitas, such as the death cap or destroying angel mushrooms.

Young puffballs in the edible stage, before maturation of the gleba, have undifferentiated white flesh within, whereas the gills of immature Amanita mushrooms can be seen if they are closely examined.

The giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea (earlier classified as Lycoperdon giganteum), reaches 1 foot (0.30 m) or more in diameter, and is difficult to mistake for any other fungus.