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Dusty Puffball

Bovista nigrescens

Easily confused with

Study checks a spoken answer against these, and tells you which one you named.

Where it is recorded

Records by month in Alaska.January 241, February 178, March 279, April 438, May 632, June 689, July 737, August 634, September 466, October 348, November 190, December 148.
United States5,009
Alaska4,980
United Kingdom14
England8
Greece7
New York6
Egean6
Minnesota5
Spain5
Scotland5

Counts show where people looked, not only where it lives.

Traits

Ecological

  • DecomposerBreaks down dead organic matter, recycling nutrientsFrom its classification

Group and habits

  • Human edibleListed as edible by a harvested source. This is a research trait, not foraging advice.FungiTastic metadata
  • Puffball fungus formDescends from a fungal lineage whose members are typically puffballs.Inferred from its group

Edibility, toxicity and medicinal traits are records from datasets, not advice. Never eat, handle or use a wild species on the strength of an app.

Classification

KingdomFungi Including Lichens · Fungi
PhylumBasidiomycete Fungi · Basidiomycota
ClassMushrooms, Bracket Fungi, Puffballs, and Allies · Agaricomycetes
OrderCommon Gilled Mushrooms and Allies · Agaricales
Familypuffballs · Lycoperdaceae
GenusTrue Puffballs · Bovista

Sources

Remember the name next time.

Practise Dusty Puffball with real photos from different observers. Say the name out loud, and it comes back just before you would forget it.