Lycoperdon echinatum - Spiny Puffball

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Lycoperdon echinatum, the Spiny Puffball, has a small, globe-shaped head on a very short stipe. The soft reddish-brown spines are in groups of threes.

Beech forests are the favoured habitat of this uncommon and inedible puffball.

The specific epithet comes from the Greek word echinos meaning ‘hedgehog’ or ‘sea-urchin’. (There is a difference!).

Identification Guide

Fruitbody	Typically 2.5 to 5cm across; 3 to 7cm tall; spines typically 4 to 5mm long. A vertically-flattened globe-shaped fruitbody on a short, infertile stem; initially white, soon becoming reddish brown. The soft spines are in sets of three (or occasionally groups of four) that converge at the tips. At maturity the spines fall off leaving a net-like pattern on the browning skin, which eventually ruptures at the apex to release the spores.
Stem	None.
Spores	Purple-brown.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Mainly found in beech forests in chalk and limestone areas.
Season	July to November.
Occurrence	Uncommon in most areas.
Similar species	Lycoperdon perlatum is paler and covered in warts rather than spines. Lycoperdon nigrescens has a longer stem; its flesh has a faint but unpleasant odour. Lycoperdon mammiforme is white at first and then its surface breaks up into large cream scales rather than spines.