Common Earthball

Scleroderma citrinum

Coniferous and deciduous forests, parks, even gardens, pastures, fallow land. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies large, almost globose, 5-12 cm across, the skin thick, cracked, warty, scaly. Young ones lemon-coloured, old ones ochre, brownish-yellow. There is no stem. Young flesh white, pink when cut, old flesh violet-black, almost black, interlaced with white threads, with an unpleasant smell. Characteristic features: firmly attached to the substrate by a tuft of rhizoids. The flesh, unlike that of puffballs, is bluish-black. Grows in forests, parks and forest edges, often on forest roadsides and slopes, singly or in small groups. Favours sandy, humus-rich soil. Not rare. Poisonous.