''Bovista plumbea'', commonly known as the tumbling puffball, tumbleball, or paltry puffball,Bovista plumbea
is a small

puffball Puffballs are a type of fungus featuring a ball-shaped fruit body that (when mature) bursts on contact or impact, releasing a cloud of dust-like spores into the surrounding area. Puffballs belong to the division Basidiomycota and encompass sever ...

mushroom commonly found in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

,Species: Bovista plumbea Pers. 1795
white when young and greyish in age. Easily confused with immature ''

Bovista dermoxantha ''Bovista dermoxantha'' is a small, white, nearly round puffball, recognized when young by a cottony-felty outer surface that becomes inconspicuously warted, eventually leaving fine, pallid, scales on an ochre to brown endoperidium. ''Bovista p ...

'', it is attached to the substrate by a tuft of

mycelium Mycelium (: mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are fo ...

Description

The fruiting body of the sporocarp is 1.5–3.5 cm broad, attached to the substrate by a tuft of

, and spherical to slightly compressed. The

exoperidium The peridium is the protective layer that encloses a mass of spores in fungi. This outer covering is a distinctive feature of gasteroid fungi. Description Depending on the species, the peridium may vary from being paper-thin to thick and rubbe ...

is white, becoming buff to pale- tan and minutely

tomentose Trichomes (; ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

, and sometimes

areolate Lichens are symbiotic organisms made up of multiple species: a fungus, one or more photobionts (an alga and/or a cyanobacteria) and sometimes a yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their gro ...

. It eventually flakes away, or peels off in sheets, the latter occurring at maturation in hot, dry conditions. In contrast, the endoperidium membranes are lead-grey, with or without adhering fragments of exoperidium.

Spores

Spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual reproduction, sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for biological dispersal, dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores fo ...

s are 5.0–6.5 x 4.0–5.5

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

ovoid An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas of mathematics (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.), it is given a more precise definition, which may inc ...

, thick-walled, and nearly smooth, with a central oil droplet, and a 7.5–11.5 μm pedicel. The

capillitium Capillitium (pl. capillitia) is a mass of sterile fibers within a fruit body interspersed among spores. It is found in Mycetozoa Mycetozoa is a polyphyletic grouping of slime molds. It was originally thought to be a monophyletic clade, but in ...

is composed of individual elements, rather than interwoven, main branches thick-walled, flexuous, rapidly tapering, forking more or less dichotomously, ochre-colored in KOH. The spores are released via a small

apical pore A germ pore is a small pore in the outer wall of a fungal spore through which the germ tube exits upon germination. It can be apical or eccentric in its location, and, on light microscopy, may be visualized as a lighter coloured area on the cell ...

. The gleba is white, turning dingy yellowish, olive-brown, finally dark-brown and firm-textured. However, the subgleba and sterile base are usually absent. Fruiting occurs throughout the mushroom season.Calonge, F.D. (1998). Flora Mycologica Iberica. Vol. 3. Gasteromycetes, I. Lycoperdales, Nidulariales, Phallales, Sclerodermatales, Tulostomatales. J. Cramer: Berlin, Germany. 271 p.

Synonyms

Obsolete

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

for ''B. plumbea'' include: *''Bovista ovalispora'' Cooke & Massee 1887 *''Bovista plumbea'' Pers. 1796 *''Bovista plumbea'' var. ''ovalispora'' (Cooke & Massee) F. Šmarda 1958 *''

Calvatia ''Calvatia'' is a genus of puffball mushrooms that includes the giant puffball ''C. gigantea''. It was formerly classified within the now-obsolete order Lycoperdales, which, following a restructuring of fungal taxonomy brought about by m ...

bovista'' (L.) Pers. 1896 *''

Lycoperdon ''Lycoperdon'' is a genus of puffball mushrooms. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains about 50 species. In general, it contains the smaller species such as the pear-shaped puffball and the gem-studded puffball. It was formerly cl ...

bovista'' Sowerby 1803 *''Lycoperdon plumbeum'' Vittad. 1842

Distribution and habitat

They often live in scattered to clustered in disturbed areas, especially in sparse grass.

Uses

The young globes can be halved and cooked, but may be too small to be worthwhile.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q948856 Agaricaceae Fungi of Europe Fungi of North America Puffballs Fungi described in 1795 Taxa named by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon Fungus species