About this fungus
Spiny Puffball is a fungus in the Agaricaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A small woodland puffball densely covered in long grouped spines, giving fresh specimens a hedgehog-like surface.
What to check
Confirm spines grouped at their tips and a net-like pattern left when they fall. To exclude dangerous immature gilled mushrooms, cut any puffball-like specimen lengthways and inspect the whole interior. A true young puffball is uniform, firm and white in the fertile area, with no developing cap, gills or stem.
Variation
Young fruit bodies are pale and become reddish-brown to dark brown as the spines and internal spore mass mature. Lost spines expose a reticulate surface.
Lookalikes
Lycoperdon perlatum has shorter detachable warts, while Lycoperdon pulcherrimum remains paler. Earthballs develop a dark interior and tough skin. Any internal mushroom outline can indicate an immature Amanita or another gilled mushroom and rules out a true puffball.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic on humus, moss and woody debris, mainly in broad-leaved woodland and often with beech, but also in grassy woodland openings.
Food safety
Inedible.
Photographs
Ron Pastorino (Ronpast) / CC BY-SA 3.0Species to compare
Similar mushrooms to compare against: