Common puffball or Rhizopogon obtectus

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.

There is no true cap. The fruiting body is tuber-shaped, round or irregularly round, 1 to 4 centimeters across, resembling a small potato or a truffle. The surface is smooth or covered with fine pressed-down fibers (rhizomorphs), whitish or yellowish at first, turning reddish-brown or olive-yellow with age and where handled. The entire fruiting body is closed, with no openings.

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 is no hymenophore in the usual sense. The spores ripen inside the closed fruiting body, in a maze-like chambered tissue (the gleba). In young mushrooms it is white and firm; as it matures it turns yellow, then brown and jelly-like, and later powdery. The spore print is olive-brown. A chambered inner tissue with no true pores or gills is a hallmark of the underground rhizopogons.

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 distinct stem; the fruiting body is attached to the soil by thin whitish cords (rhizomorphs), especially noticeable at the base. The whole structure is a single solid tuber with no division into cap and stem, which is exactly what sets Rhizopogon apart from the familiar cap-and-stem mushrooms.

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 (gleba) of young mushrooms is white, firm and uniform, with tiny maze-like chambers. This is the only stage at which the mushroom is edible. As it matures, it turns yellow, then brown, becomes jelly-like and unfit to eat. White young flesh in cross-section is your guarantee of edibility; any darkening means the mushroom is overripe.

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

The smell is faint, pleasant and mushroomy, becoming stronger and not always pleasant in mature specimens. The aroma is not a defining feature; you recognize this mushroom by its underground lifestyle, its closed tuber-like fruiting body with no cap or stem, and its link to pine.