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Puffball in grass
Lycoperdon or Calvatia Genus
Angles captured. Three close views from slightly different sides; no shot of the base or a cut section.
Morphology
Roughly spherical to slightly flattened, ~6–7 cm across, white to off-white, surface smooth to very finely granular with fine dark speckling developing over the upper half. No stalk visible above ground, no aperture yet — an immature, unopened fruitbody.
Habitat & substrate
In grass at a sunny trail edge with broadleaf herbs. Terrestrial, solitary, saprotrophic.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
An unopened Amanita egg looks very similar from outside. This is the single most important reason to cut a puffball in half.
To confirm this identification
Slice it top to bottom. A true puffball is uniformly white and solid throughout; an Amanita egg shows the outline of a cap, gills and stipe in cross-section. Also check whether the interior has begun to yellow.
Found at Massasoit Rd area, Worcester, MA on Friday, 31 July 2026 at 18:22. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Earthballs in leaf litterScleroderma sp. · Oct 11Moderate
Earthball, cut openScleroderma sp. · Aug 6High
Common puffballs in litterLycoperdon perlatum · Aug 8Moderate–high
Common puffball — mossy bankLycoperdon perlatum · Aug 8Moderate–high
Common puffball — by the boulderLycoperdon cf. perlatum · Aug 8Moderate
Common puffball — moss cushionLycoperdon perlatum · Aug 8High