100 Species #90: Purple-spored or skull-shaped puffball

This purple-spored (Calvatia cyathiformis) or skull-shaped (C. craniformis) puffball grew in the grass next to the driveway; this photo is from August 31.

If I'd let this mushroom grow to maturity, to let the interior turn into a mass of billions of spores, then the color of those spores would let me know what species it is. But I didn't, because I ate it. To eat a puffball you have to harvest it when the flesh inside is pure white--if it isn't pure white, or if it shows a structure of any kind inside, the mushroom is not edible, and may well be deadly poisonous. But this mushroom looked like dense pure white angel food cake, and once cooked, tasted like mushroomy French toast.

Both species can grow in open areas, feeding on nutrients in the soil. Next time they pop up, I wont eat it--I want to see what color the spores are, and I wasn't too thrilled with it as food.


The top. This photo is from the morning of September 1.


Alexis took this picture after I harvested the mushroom, in the afternoon of September 2. You can see how the mushroom grew and changed shape from the first picture. The large blemish is probably from slugs grazing at the surface.