''Chlorophyllum agaricoides'', known commonly as the puffball parasol, false puffball, or puffball agaric, is a species of

fungus A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...

belonging to the family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publish ...

. When young, it is edible, and has been traditionally eaten in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

for many years. It has cosmopolitan distribution, with notable documentation in China,

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...

, and

. It is also a protected species in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

, and is believed to be in decline across Europe due to habitat destruction.

Description

It is a

secotioid Secotioid fungi are an intermediate growth form between mushroom-like hymenomycetes and closed bag-shaped gasteromycetes, where an evolutionary process of gasteromycetation has started but not run to completion. Secotioid fungi may or may not ha ...

mushroom, meaning its

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others som ...

takes the form of a

gleba Gleba (, from Latin ''glaeba, glēba'', "lump") is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of certain fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn. The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp. The conti ...

made of underdeveloped gills, completely enclosed by the cap, which never fully opens. This protects the mushroom from desiccation. The cap is egg-shaped to spherical, often tapering upward to form a blunt, conical point 1-7cm wide and 2-10cm tall. It is white, and becomes dark brown with age. It is mostly smooth, with some small fibrils, though it may also develop fibrous scales. The gills are contorted, irregularly chambered, and underdeveloped, making up an enclosed gleba which is white, aging to a mustardy yellow-brown. The stipe is 0-3cm long and 0.5-2cm thick. There is no ring. Its odor becomes cabbagey with age. It grows singularly or in clusters mostly on cultivated land or grass, though occasionally on the forest floor. The spores are 6.5-9.5 x 5-7µm, globose to elliptic, green to yellow-brown, turning reddish brown in Melzer's. The

germ 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 ce ...

is indistinct.

Cheilocystidia A cystidium (plural cystidia) is a relatively large cell found on the sporocarp of a basidiomycete (for example, on the surface of a mushroom gill), often between clusters of basidia. Since cystidia have highly varied and distinct shapes that ar ...

and pleurocystidia are absent.

Agaricus inapertus ''Agaricus inapertus'' is a species of secotioid fungus in the genus ''Agaricus''. It was first described by American mycologists Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith in 1958 as ''Endoptychum depressum''. Molecular A molecule is a group of t ...

is a look-alike, although unlike C. agaricoides, it prefers forests and develops a black gleba with age.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10646556 Agaricaceae