Apioperdon pyriforme (previously known as Lycoperdon pyriforme) (Scaeff.) Vizzini 2017
This common dead wood-eating puffball is pear-shaped to spherical (pyriforme means pear-shaped) with short pyrimidal whitish spines that come off as the puffball enlarges. Flesh is initially white and firm, but once the spores start to develop the interior becomes softer and gradually darkens from yellowish to dark olive-brown. An opening develops at the top where mature spores are released primarily as a result of impact with rain drops or wind effects. They are attached to the wood substrate with rhizomorphs (strands of compacted mycelia). Unlike Lycoperdon perlatum, which is terrestrial, Basidiocarps Apioperdon pyriforme grow in clumps on decaying branches, stumps and logs of both deciduous trees and conifers. They are edible when firm and pure white inside. This is a gasteroid fungi, or stomach fungi in the Agaricaceae family of the Agaricales order of the Basidiomycota division. There may actually be more than one species going under this name. We will have to wait and see.
Apioperdon pyriforme
Apioperdon pyriforme