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Young, edible "puffballs" are roundish and solid white, ranging in size from a penny to a basketball. When they're older and begin to dry out, the white mass inside the ball becomes brown and powdery. At this stage, if you squeeze the ball, the powder will "puff" out the top of the fungus, hence the name puffball. Sometimes the entire top of the ball will break away, and the powder will spill out of the remaining cup-like structure. The powder is composed of spores --billions or trillions (!) of them in large puffballs—which are the basic reproductive units of a shroom. (See the “Identifying Urban Mushrooms” section of this website.)

Puffballs are not the same as truffles, the famous gourmet mushrooms, especially the famous white truffle of Italy. Truffles are potato-shaped with a marble interior and grow underground. Truffles smell like a pig pheromone, which is a sexual attractant. This explains why pigs were used by farmers to sniff out truffles. Unfortunately, pigs eat about 20 percent of the truffles they find. So, easier-to-train dogs are now used. In another victory for the world of automation, a truffle-detecting machine has been developed, which is guaranteed not to eat the truffles. In any case, truffles have been found in some cities, but they are hard to find and identify.

Lycoperdon perlatum is an edible puffball, but like other edible puffballs, only when it is young and completely white inside. If you cut the fungus in half and it appears yellowish or brownish, it is no longer safe to eat. (Some people cut away the yellowing part of the fungus on larger specimens and eat the white part with no ill effects.) If you cut through it and it's purple black, it's probably a poisonous species. Also, when you cut it in half, be sure your "puffball" is not actually the button or egg stage of a different kind of mushroom. If it is, you will see the outline of a mushroom in the white interior of the egg.

The gem-studded puffball frequently grows close to curbs, near trampled ground, or areas where grass is present but not dense. It's not found in mulched flower beds. Look for the detachable conical spines.