| Scleroderma bovista Fr. |
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common name(s) : Potato Earthball
edibility : poisonous
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The fruiting body is irregularly globular, smooth to finely scaly, with reddish-brown scales on a yellow background, the skin being less than 1mm thick, grey-beige, ochre to brownish-red, with a short stem buried in the soil, or no stem at all. The flesh is white in the youth, then brown, turning later to powder; The fertile surface is internal: the spores are released as dust when mature. The spore print is brown.It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved and coniferous woods, parks, on a rather calcareous, clayey to sandy soil. The fruiting period takes place from August to October.
Distinctive features : globular shape with a smooth or slightly scaly skin; thin skin, less than 1 mm thick; reticulated spores; very short or absent stem; in woods or parks Scleroderma bovista is rare and confined in the forest of Rambouillet, and is infrequent, more generally speaking . | ||
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page updated on 14/01/18