Scleroderma citrinum Pers.:Pers. |
The fruiting body is irregularly globular, tough, cracked, with adpressed brown scales on a pale background, the skin being 2 to 5mm thick, orange-yellow then ochre, without stem, but adhering to ground through strong mycelial strands. The flesh is blackish, veined with white in the youth, turning later to powder; its taste is mild; the odour is unpleasant, of rubber or metal. 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, in warm places, on a rather acid soil, with oaks, pines, cedars, cypresses, birches, chestnut trees, beeches, heather. The fruiting period takes place from July to December.
Distinctive features : globular shape with scaly ant thick outer skin (up to 5mm); brown scales on a lemon-yellow then buff background; dark slate-brown interior, streaked with white veins in the youth, eventually turning to powder; unpleasant smell, of metal or rubber; the most frequent earthball Scleroderma citrinum is frequent and very widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is very frequent, more generally speaking . | ||
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page updated on 14/01/18