Calvatia gigantea - Giant Puffball

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Calvatia gigantea (common synonym Langermannia gigantea), the Giant Puffball, can grow to 80cm diameter and weigh several kilograms. These fungi are edible if gathered when they are young and white throughout.

It is almost pointless to go in search of these elusive but very conspicuous funghi unless you know of a site where they have appeared in the past. Just treat the occasional new find as a slice of serendipity!

Identification Guide

Description	A large, slightly flattened globe-shaped fruit body, initially white; lumpy and leathery surface; sometimes wrinkled near the base, where it is connected to the substrate by a root-like mycelial cord. Often the mycelial cord breaks, allowing the puffball to roll around in the wind and distribute spores widely once the outer skin has ruptured.
Dimensions	Typically 10 to 80cm across, but exceptionally more than a metre in diameter.
Other features	There is next to no sterile base section: virtually the whole of this puffball is filled with fertile spore mass.
Stem	None.
Spores	Olive-brown.
Odour/taste	Very feint, pleasant odour; no distinctive taste.
Habitat	Mainly found at the edges of fields and among briars in waste ground.
Season	July to November.
Occurrence	Rare in most areas.
Similar species	Handkea utriformis is much smaller, shaped like a vertically-squashed pear, and has a sterile base section.