Puffball

The Puffball is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae, commonly known as the true puffballs. The 46 species have a widespread distribution, and are found largely in temperate regions of the world. Various species have historically been used in homeopathic preparations.

Fruit bodies are oval to spherical to pear-shaped, and typically 1 to 8 cm in diameter with a white or light-colored thin and fragile exoperidum (outer layer of the peridium). Depending on the species, the exoperidium in a young specimen may be smooth, granular, or finely echinulate. This exoperidium sloughs off at maturity to expose a smooth endoperidium with an apical pore. They may be attached to the ground by fine rhizomorphs that may appear like a small cord in some species. Spores are brown to purple-brown, roughly spherical or ellipsoid in shape, and 3.5–7 μm in diameter. At maturity, the entire fruit body may become detached from the ground, and the spores spread as the puffball is blown around. In Bovista, the capillitium (a network of thread-like cells in which the spores are embedded) are not connected directly to the peridial wall, but rather, they are made of separate units and branch irregularly, ending in tapered points.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovista - 10.09.2008