Mosaic Puffball

Calvatia utriformis

Grassy forest clearings, forest edges, pastures, meadows, fallow land. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies large, 7-15 cm tall and 5-12 cm across, bluntly pear-shaped, cylindrical-globular, when young white, when old brown; at first the surface is almost smooth, faintly spiny-warty, later it cracks, splits, becomes rough and eventually crumbles away, and, smoothed by the wind, becomes smooth. Young flesh white, spongy, when old turning brown; when the exoperidium cracks it crumbles and scatters, leaving only the lower, sterile, cup-shaped part of the fruiting body, which persists until the following summer and longer. Characteristic features: the surface of the fruiting body looks like crocodile skin. Grows singly or in groups. Edible when young. Common. Medical scientists are interested in its properties.