Common puffball or Fen 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.

Fruiting body 3-5 cm across, spherical to flattened-spherical, with no distinct cap or stem (like all puffballs). The outer skin is whitish to cream when young, turning brown with age. Surface smooth or with fine scales in older ones.

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.

There's no hymenophore in the usual sense — the spores form inside the fruiting body, in the gleba. In young ones the gleba is firm white, marbled in cross-section. In mature ones it becomes powdery, dark olive-brown. Spore powder dark olive-brown.

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.

Stem absent or very short, threadlike — the fruiting body is attached to the substrate by a mycelial "cap".

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.

In young ones — firm, marble-white, like cheese curd. When cut it doesn't change color. In mature ones it becomes powdery, with the characteristic dark brown spore powder. Faint mushroomy smell.

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

Faintly pleasant and mushroomy, with no distinctive notes.