Lycoperdon subcretaceum
Agarica 29: 90. 2010.
Common Name: none
Synonyms: Calvatia subcretacea Zeller; Handkea subcretacea (Zeller) Kreisel; Gastropila subcretacea (Zeller) P. Ponce de León
Fruiting body sessile, 40 x 25-50 mm broad, subglobose to cushion-shaped, occasionally turbinate, attached to substrate by finely branched rhizomorphs or a thin rhizomorphic cord; exoperidium at first whitish, becoming buff brown to greyish brown, with expansion forming grey brown tipped pyramidal warts, up to 7 mm broad, 2-3 mm tall; exposed endoperidum whitish up to 3 mm thick, persistent with the exoperidium, sometimes yellowing when cut; gleba white, soft, maturing olivaceous-brown to dark olive-brown, senescing dull brown and powdery; subgleba and sterile base absent; peridium at maturity, rigid, brittle, fragmenting along margins of the warts exposing glebal tissue; odor of fresh gleba not distinctive; taste mild.
Spores 3.5-6.0 µm, globose, inconspicuously roughened at 400X, asperulate when viewed at 1000X (oil immersion), moderately thick-walled, possessing a central oil droplet and a short, up to 1.0 µm long hyaline pedicel; spores dark-brown in mass; capillitial pores slit-like and common.
Solitary to scattered under montane conifers in the spring; fruiting bodies often persisting into the summer; common.
Unknown, but probably edible when young and the gleba still white.
Lycoperdon subcretaceum, known as Calvatia subcretacea in older field guides, is a common spring fruiting, montane species. Fruiting bodies are modest in size, a little larger than a golf ball with a surface of greyish brown-tipped pyramidal warts over a whitish background. Another puffball sometimes found with Lycoperdon subcretaceum is Calvatia fumosa. Similar in size and shape, it differs with a noticeably thicker peridium and an areolate surface of flat, not erect, brownish warts. It is unusual among puffballs in developing a strong, unpleasant odor as it nears maturity, evident when sectioned. Calbovista subsculpta, a much larger montane puffball, is unlikely to be confused except for small, immature specimens. These can be distinguished by a well-develop subgleba and a thick cord-like anchoring root, both features poorly developed in Lycoperdon subcretaceum.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Jarvis, S.S. (2014). The Lycoperdaceae of California. Masters thesis. San Francisco State University: San Francisco, CA. 336 p.
Jeppson, M. (2018). Puffballs of Northern and Central Europe. Sveriges Mykologiska Förening: Gothenburg, Sweden. 359 p.
Kreisel, H. (1989). Studies in the Calvatia complex (Basidiomycetes). Nova Hedwigia 48(3-4): 281-296.
Zeller, S.M. (1947). More notes on Gasteromycetes. Mycologia 39: 282-312. (Protologue)
Zeller, S.M. & Smith, A.H. (1964). The genus Calvatia in North America. Lloydia 27: 148-180.
— two common Sierra puffballs
