Friday, 15 November 2019

mycology - Puffball mushroom species ID?


Found this mushroom today. It's a kind of puffball mushroom and I think pestle puffball but I hope someone can confirm that/point me to other likely species.


It was in Central Eastern Sweden (Uppsala) in a pine and birch forest. Autumn has been quite dry so the season may be a bit delayed. They were in bunches of 2-5 mushrooms, they are about 1-4cm across the ball and the stem is quite fat plus about 1-3cm long. They are white through the middle.enter image description here




Answer



Given what you've said in the comments, and how much more common they are, I'm going with my first gut reaction of Lycoperdon perlatum. The big give away for me was that you said there was a good taste. L. Perlatum has a rich nutty flavor (my wife grows them), but Handkea excipuliformis (pestle puffballs) don't have much taste if any. They are seriously notably bland. H. excipuliformis can take on the flavor of what ever you cook them with, so if you cooked in a nut oil or with nuts, then you would have given the flavor that way.


Not that I support taste as a primary means of id... In this case most of the puffballs are edible so you were in a low risk situation. I just don't want to start a wave of fungus ID's that include taste info!


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