Spiny Puffball

Lycoperdon echinatum – Edible

Damp deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies 3-5 cm across, globular, broadly pear-shaped, beautifully yellowish-brown, when old brown, spiny (spines up to 7 mm long), shaggy (resembling a hedgehog). Flesh white when young, when old greyish-brown, chocolate-brown. Grows singly in forests. An uncommon, beautiful mushroom. The Dusky Puffball (L. umbrinus) is very similar, only its fruiting bodies are covered with spiny warts which almost all crumble and fall off, leaving the surface of the fruiting body rough but not hairy.