Common puffball or Brown puffball

The fruiting body is inverted pear-shaped or club-shaped, 2-6 cm tall, 1.5-4 cm wide at the top. The upper (fertile) part is a rounded head; the lower (sterile) part is a narrowed “stalk” 1-3 cm long. Color: young ones are white or cream; with age yellowish grey to brown. A telltale feature — the surface is covered in coarse spiny warts (1-2 mm) that gradually fall off, leaving a net-like trace.

The fruiting body is a round or slightly flattened "ball" 3–6 cm across, with no stem. The outer surface of a young mushroom is smooth, white or cream. In mature ones it flakes off in small scales, exposing the dark inner wall. Old ones are entirely dark purple-brown or almost black.

Internal hymenophore (gleba). The young gleba is white, dense and uniform. With age it turns yellow, then green, and becomes a dark olive-grey powdery spore mass. At the top of a mature fruiting body an opening forms, through which the spores puff out when a raindrop hits (hence the Ukrainian name, “rain mushroom”). Spore print dark olive-brown.

The spore-bearing layer is internal — it fills the whole inside of the fruiting body. In young ones it is a solid, dense white tissue (the gleba). In mature ones it turns into a powdery dark spore mass. The spores are olive-brown, with thin little tails.

There is no separate stem — the fruiting body is all one piece. The lower sterile part is a “stalk-base” 1-3 cm tall, somewhat narrower than the top, white and scaly, passing into whitish rhizomorphs (mycelial cords) in the soil.

There is no stem. The fruiting body is attached to the soil by a short mycelial cord that often breaks — and mature mushrooms can then roll about in the wind, scattering spores through an opening at the top.

The flesh of young ones is pure white, uniform, dense, with a delicate pleasant flavor. With age it turns yellow, then green, and becomes a spore mass. The test: cut it open: uniform white = good to eat; any other color = throw it out.

The gleba (inner tissue) is white, springy and delicately textured in young specimens. As it ripens it takes on a yellowish-gray tint — at this stage the mushroom is no longer edible. In old ones it turns into a dry dark powder (the spore mass).

Faint, pleasant mushroomy smell with no sharp notes. Taste mild and neutral — it takes on the flavors of the dish.

The smell is faint, barely mushroomy; in young ones it recalls fresh egg-white batter. The taste is mild and neutral, slightly nutty in some specimens.