UK Fungi

Puffballs/Earthballs growing out of tarmac

Forums › Forums › Fungi ID requests (post here if you aren’t sure what type of fungus you’ve found) › Puffballs/Earthballs growing out of tarmac

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  • October 25, 2015 at 11:30 am #36953
    jimmymac2

      NellyDee wrote:

      jimmymac2 wrote:

      If I have to work it out myself, then I guess I’ll never know what this is. I’ve looked in Phillips but couldn’t find a match, which is why I put it on here. :(

      Sticking my oar in as no expert but try lycoperdon umbrinum – Google images. I was looking through to try and ID recently and some of these look like your photo. I do know that Google images are unreliable but it might give you a lead.

      Thanks Nelly. I’m not sure that mine are spiny enough to be this species though. There was another clump, which was completely spineless. The gleba – if that’s what it’s called – seems to be yellow in some photos though, whereas mine was white.

      Mike – let me try again.

      I found these, they were growing out of mossy covered tarmac path in a deciduous wood with Beech/Oak/Birch nearby, but I couldn’t see if they were actually growing from wood. The biggest one was about approx 6cm across. They had what looked like clumps of spines rather than scales, but they are not like anything I’ve seen before and I can’t find anything like them in my fungi book. They are just a few houses down the road so easily accessible if I need to look at a specific characteristic and I’m hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.

      October 25, 2015 at 2:18 pm #36954
      Leif

        adampembs wrote:

        Leif wrote:

        Don’t you dare suggest I’m from Yorkshire. 😆 Otherwise, yes, good points.

        Oops, not from Lancashire are you? (you haven’t filled in your profile!) ;)

        When in a hole, keep on digging .. :D No, Leicester. But I have Yorkshire /Derbyshire ancestry going back 200 years, don’t tell anyone.

        October 25, 2015 at 3:01 pm #36955
        jimmymac2

          Can anyone suggest what the fungus might be please :?:

          October 26, 2015 at 3:23 pm #36956
          NellyDee

            I had a look through my old book , maybe try one of the Calvatia or Lycoperdon perlatum. Have you tried pulling one up in case there is a stem lurking beneath or cutting to see what colour spores are? I actually know very little about fungi, I am at the learning stage. I find something that looks like it, then Google to see what variations there are – not always successful, but fun ;)

            October 26, 2015 at 7:20 pm #36957
            eltio
            Participant

              Looks like a lot of fuss over a puffball. Not all especially helpful. I’d start with Lycoperdon molle, but take onboard the helpful parts of the advice offered.

              October 26, 2015 at 7:43 pm #36958
              Leif

                It looks smallish, with no distinct stem, smallish spines, and a pinched base, which to be suggests a puffball. Bovista are out, I think they are all smooth skinned.

                L perlatum tends to have a distinct stem and expanded top part. It also has obvious pyramidal spines. L pyriforme is pear shaped as per the name. Calvatia excipuliformis is rather large. L echinatum has prominant spines. L umbrinum has smaller spines but they are obvious, and seem to occur in little clumps or four or so, from memory. L nigrescens is similar, L molle less spiney. So I think we can say it is one of the last three. The spines seem few, and small, and it does not look as they have fallen off – they would leave marks – so as suggested above, L molle is most likely.

                James, this is all about paying attention to details, and pattern recognition. Perhaps your problem is lack of decent literature, although you need to know how to use it. Many popular guides if not almost all, are rather vague, and trying to ID species even with a venerable guide such as Phillips is often unrealistic. There are some excellent web sites, sich as bioimages, with quality photos, and I suspect the ID is usually if not always reliable.

                Oh, and you need good specimens, preferably young and mature, AND PLEASE MAKE NOTES AT THE TIME OF COLECTION. I use an Amazon Fire tablet. I can copy a word file to my PC in seconds.

                Finally, THIS IS NOT EASY. It needs patience, and learning. It once took me five years to ID a collection. Many times I do not reach an ID. Of course you can just enjoy seeing the many various and beautiful forms without putting names to them.

                October 26, 2015 at 7:52 pm #36959
                Chris Yeates

                  Good advice from Geoff Kibby, who probably knows as much about macrofungi as anyone in this country:

                  “Start small: learn to recognise the basic groups where possible, that is half the battle. Go on as many guided mushroom walks as possible and learn from experts in the field – there is no substitute for that. Field guides can only take you so far and cannot show you all the many variations that fungi are capable of. My favourite saying is that ‘mushrooms don’t read the books!’ Meaning that they don’t always conform in size and appearance to the illustrations in the book, they vary enormously as they age”.

                  October 26, 2015 at 8:33 pm #36960
                  jimmymac2

                    Thanks all for the advice and the help on the ID. :D

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