Bovista sierraensis nom. prov.
Common Name: none
Fruiting body 15-25 x 20-40 mm broad, compressed globose to pulvinate, the base plicate; exoperidium white, thin, ~1 mm, more or less glabrous, sometimes wrinkled to occasionally scaly, in age thinning, becoming sparse, revealing a light brown, medium brown, to mahogany brown glabrous, parchment-like endoperidium; gleba at first yellowish olive, becoming dark brown, powdery at maturity; subgleba absent; odor and taste not determined; spores dispersed by a broad, ragged apical opening; fruiting body breaking free from substrate in age.
Spores 4.5-7.5 (8.0) µm, globose to subglobose, moderately thick-walled, pointed-verrucose with a central oil droplet; pedicels short, inconspicuous; capillitium fragmented, straight to subundulate with frequent Y-shaped branches, threads 3- 6 microns in width, walls up to 1.5 microns thick, septa common, lacking pores; spores dark brown in mass.
Solitary to gregarious in sparse grass, herbs and mosses of montane meadows adjacent to riparian corridors; fruiting in spring, again in fall; uncommon to occasionally abundant in wet years. Distribution poorly known, likely more widespread than the Sierra Nevada.
Probably edible.
This small montane puffball, provisionally named Bovista sierraensis, is recognized by a compressed globose shape, a smooth, white exoperidium when young, and a brownish parchment-like endoperidium that opens broadly at the apex in age. Microscopically, the presence of thick-walled capillitial threads that lack pores, hints of a relationship with Bovista. This is also suggested by preliminary DNA sequencing. Additionally, like a number of Bovista species, the fruiting bodies of Bovista sierraensis separate from the substrate at maturity and are blown about by the wind. Called “tumblers,” these puffballs tend to have structurally persistent glebas that release spores gradually, but surprisingly, not Bovista sierraensis. At maturity the glebal structure breaks down, becomes powdery, and the spores quickly dispersed. What is left is a husk-like shell similar to that seen in Lycoperdon (Vascellum) pratense, but lacking a subgleba. Besides Bovista sierraensis, several other small puffballs are often encountered in the Sierra. These look-alikes can often be distinguished as a group by the nature of the fresh exoperidium. Only Bovista sierraensis and the related Bovista pila and Bovista plumbea have nearly smooth white exoperidia. All the rest, including Lycoperdon vernimontanum, Bovista aestivalis, Bovista californica, Lycoperdon dermoxanthum, and Vascellum lloydianum, have either spinulose, furfuraceous-granulose, finely scaled, or warted exoperidia.
Jarvis, S.S. (2014). The Lycoperdaceae of California. Masters thesis. San Francisco State University: San Francisco, CA. 336 p.
— spores and capillitium
