Lead-grey Puffball

Lead-grey Puffball is a small, very common, widely distributed, true puffball. It is most common in Europe and North America, but it also occurs in Australia, New Zealand, and South America. It is found in summer and fall in open grassy areas and disturbed areas with sparse grass, including pastures, lawns, golf courses, and cemeteries. It grows on the ground alone, scattered, or in groups but not clustered (gregarious). It obtains its nutrients from decaying organic matter (saprobic).

When it first appears, the fruiting body is white. It may be hairless, felty, or covered with small, flattened scales. As it ages, the outer layer (exoperidium) flakes or peels away in patches, especially when conditions are hot and dry, revealing a thin, membranous, lead-gray, inner skin (endoperidium). This is the feature that gives the species its common name. Mature fruiting bodies are spherical or slightly flattened. They are usually ⅜″ to 1 9⁄16″ (1 to 4 cm) in diameter, but in especially favorable conditions they can get up to twice that size.

Unlike puffballs in the genus Lycoperdon, Lead-grey Puffball has no sterile base. It is attached to the soil by a tuft of hair-like mycelial threads. When the spores are mature, a small, circular pore forms at the top of the endoperidium. Spores are released in a puff through this pore whenever the puffball is disturbed. Eventually the puffball detaches from the ground and can be rolled along by wind, disbursing spores as it goes.

Lead-grey Puffball is edible when it is young and the spore mass is firm and white.

Tumbling Puffball (Bovista pila) is larger, 1 3⁄16″ to 3½″ (3 to 9 cm) in diameter. It is attached to the soil by a long cord. It releases spores through cracks or tears, not through a pore at the top.

Open grassy areas including pastures, lawns, golf courses, and cemeteries

Summer and fall