How to tell Common puffball from Common earthball

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 globular or flattened, 3-10 cm across, WITHOUT a distinct “stalk” (it sits on the ground). Color: yellow-brown, ochre-yellow, darker and browner with age. The skin is thick, hard, like a shell, with coarse, prominent scaly warts. This sets it fundamentally apart from the thin-skinned edible puffballs. In mature specimens the top splits into ragged pieces, exposing the spore mass.

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.

Internal hymenophore (gleba). The young gleba is already dark purple-black — this is the key diagnostic feature that distinguishes it from the white gleba of true puffballs. Often with white or greyish veins (a “marbled” pattern). With age it turns into a dark grey-black powdery mass. Spore print dark purple-black.

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 separate stem. The fruiting body is attached to the soil by a short tuft of white rhizomorphs. Unlike true puffballs, there is no distinct “stalk-base.”

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 flesh is, already at a young age, dark purple-black or grey-black, sometimes with thin white veins (marbled). When cut, this color is unambiguous — it is a sign of poison. In true edible puffballs the young flesh is uniformly white.

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

Chemical, unpleasant, sometimes with a hint of rubber or phenol — a telltale difference from the pleasant mushroomy smell of edible puffballs. Taste: do not taste it.