Bovista dermoxantha (Vittadini) De Toni
Saccardo, Syll. Fung. 7: 100. (1888).

Common Name: none

Synonyms: Lycoperdon dermoxantha Vittidini; Bovista pusilla (Batsch: Persoon) Persoon nomen ambiguum; Lycoperdon pusillum Batsch sensu auct.

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body 1.5-3.0 (4.0) cm broad, subglobose, attached to the substrate by a white mycelial cord; exoperidium up to 1.0 mm thick, white, felty, in age shriveling, leaving buff to light-brown, furfuraceous scales or low warts on the endoperidium; endoperidium thin, membranous, ochre-brown to medium-brown, opening via a ragged apical pore; gleba soft, white, becoming yellowish-olive to olive-brown, medium-brown at maturity; subgleba and sterile base absent; odor and taste not distinctive.

• Spores

  Spores 3.5-4.5 µm in diameter, globose, thick-walled, smooth to faintly warted, with a central oil droplet and stub-like pedicel; capillitium sparsely branched, slender; pits variable, absent to abundant.

• Habitat

  Solitary, scattered, to clustered on disturbed ground, e.g. pastures, playing fields, edges of woods, roads, and paths; widely distributed at low elevations; fruiting during the summer in watered areas and throughout the mushroom season; common but inconspicuous and easily overlooked.

• Edibility

  Edible, but too small to be of culinary value.

• Comments

  Bovista dermoxantha is a small, white, nearly round puffball, recognized when young by a cottony-felty outer surface that becomes inconspicuously warted, eventually leaving fine, pallid, scales on an ochre to brown endoperidium. Bovista plumbea is similar, but has a smoother surface when young, and lacks a basal mycelial cord. In age it is distinguished by a dull greyish endoperidium. Large specimens of Bovista dermoxantha may also be mistaken for Bovista pila. Both have a mycelial cord attachment to the substrate, but Bovista pila differs in releasing spores through tears or splits in the endoperidium rather than by an apical pore.

• References

  Bates, S.T. (2004). Arizona members of the Geastraceae and Lycoperdaceae (Basidiomycota, Fungi). Masters Thesis. Arizona State University: Tempe, AZ. 445 p.
  Calonge, F.D. (1998). Flora Mycologica Iberica. Vol. 3. Gasteromycetes, I. Lycoperdales, Nidulariales, Phallales, Sclerodermatales, Tulostomatales. J. Cramer: Berlin, Germany. 271 p.
  Coker, W.C. & Couch, J.N. (1974). The Gasteromycetes of the Eastern United States and Canada. Dover Publications, Inc: New York, NY. 201 p.
  Kreisel, H. (1967). Taxonomisch-Pflanzengeographische Monographie Der Gattung Bovista. J. Cramer: Lehre. 244 p.
  Pegler, D.N., Læssøe, T. & Spooner, B.M. (1995). British Puffballs, Earthstars, and Stinkhorns. Royal Botanic Gardens: Kew, England. 255 p.
  Smith, A.H. (1951). Puffballs and Their Allies in Michigan. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MI. 131 p.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Bovista dermoxantha (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Bovista dermoxantha (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Bovista dermoxantha (CP)
  • Miller: sp. 363 (D) [as Lycoperdon pusillum]
  • Orr & Orr: p. 116 (D) [as Lycoperdon pusillum]
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)