While walking across the field of cut grass across the street from where I live, I noticed small white clusters of objects with an interesting texture on the ground. 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.
Initially white in color, these puffballs turn a dark brown as they mature, at the same time changing from nearly round to somewhat flattened. Puffballs range widely in size and appearance — from tiny species that grow in clusters on wood, to large, terrestrial species growing in fairy rings in meadow.
The fruit bodies are edible when young, when the interior is white and firm and before it has turned into a powdery brown mass of spores. Laboratory tests have shown that extracts of the fruit bodies can inhibit the growth of several types of bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.
Spiny Puffball is usually found growing in tight clusters in grass, often in disturbed-ground areas like ditches – but also sometimes appearing on woodchips in landscaping areas. It is most often seen in late Summer and Fall. This species is widely distributed in North America.
With a Latin Name of Lycoperdon echinatum, the specific epithet echinatum comes from the Greek word echinos meaning “hedgehog” or “sea-urchin.”
