Lycoperdon nigrescens Persoon
Neues Mag. Bot. 1. 1794.

Common Name: Black puffball

Synonym: Lycoperdon foetidum Bonord.

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body 2.0-4.0 cm tall, 2.5-3.0 cm broad, pear-shaped, tapering to a narrow sterile base; exoperdium blackish-brown, a mixture of straight or connivent, short spines and furfuraceous granules; endoperidium thin, membranous, buff-brown to ochre-brown; fruiting body dehiscing via an apical pore; gleba whitish, becoming yellowish-olive, in age dull olive-brown or dark ochre-brown, firm to elastic in texture; subgleba taking up to one half the fruiting body, finely chambered, pale grey to brown, sometimes tinged purple.

• Spores

  Spores 3-5.5 µm, globose to subglobose, thick-walled, echinulate, with a large central body, often with a short, <1 µm pedicel; spores dull olive-brown in deposit; capillitium slender, occasionally branched 3.0-5.5 µm thick, pores variable, mostly round to elongate.

• Habitat

  Solitary to scattered on soil, partially covered with woody debris or duff; fruiting from late fall to mid-winter in conifer woods.

• Edibility

  Unknown, presumably edible when immature with a whitish interior; untried locally.

• Comments

  As the species name suggests, the most obvious field character of this puffball is its dark, almost black color. Like many inconspicuous fungi, this puffball is probably far more common than collections would indicate.

• References

  Calonge, F.D. (1998). Flora Mycologica Iberica. Vol. 3. Gasteromycetes, I. Lycoperdales, Nidulariales, Phallales, Sclerodermatales, Tulostomatales. J. Cramer: Berlin, Germany. 271 p.
  Kreisel, H. (1973). Die Lycoperdaceae der DDR. J. Cramer: Lehre. 201 p.
  Pegler, D.N., Læssøe, T. & Spooner, B.M. (1995). British Puffballs, Earthstars, and Stinkhorns. Royal Botanic Gardens: Kew, England. 255 p.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • George Barron's Fungi of Canada (East): Lycoperdon foetidum (D & CP)
  • Pilze, Pilze, Pilze: Lycoperdon foetidum (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Lycoperdon nigrescens (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 692 (D & P) [Lycoperdon foetidum]
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 2): sp. 513 (D, I, & CP) [Lycoperdon foetidum]
  • Jordan: p. 356 (D & CP) [Lycoperdon foetidum]
  • Pegler et al. (1995): p. 154 (D), p. 155 (I & CP)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)