About this fungus
Meadow Puffball is a fungus in the Agaricaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A small, squat puffball of lawns, meadows and dunes, white and finely scurfy when young, then buff to brown as the internal spore mass matures. A short sterile base gives it a low pear-shaped outline.
What to check
Check the grassland habitat, finely scurfy rather than coarsely warted surface, and a clear boundary between the fertile upper part and sterile base. A lengthwise cut should show a uniform white interior in an immature puffball, with no developing cap, gills or stem inside. There is no ring or volva.
Variation
Young fruit bodies are white to cream. The outer surface flakes and darkens through buff to brown with age, while the inside changes from firm white tissue to an olive-brown powdery spore mass. Mature colour does not indicate an additional cap colour pattern.
Lookalikes
Common Puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum, has more conspicuous detachable warts. Stump Puffball, Apioperdon pyriforme, grows on wood or buried woody material. Earthballs have a tougher rind and dark internal tissue. An immature Amanita can show the outline of a developing cap, gills or stem when cut lengthwise, unlike the uniform interior of a true young puffball.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic in short grassland, lawns, parks, pastures, golf courses and coastal dunes. It occurs in Europe, North America and other temperate regions, so the field clues apply more widely than any one country.
Food safety
Edible.
Use this profile to learn what to examine and compare, not as proof that a mushroom is safe to eat. Check the whole specimen and every important lookalike before reaching an identification.
Species to compare
Similar mushrooms to compare against: