So what precisely are puffball mushrooms? Several diverse types of mushrooms fall under the umbrella term “puffballs.” There are some toxic fungi that may look similar to puffballs, but all puffball mushrooms are edible when young and white. They develop as solid fungal spheres with no caps, stems, or gills. In this in-depth guide, we’ll go over what puffball mushrooms are, how to spot them when foraging, and all the many things you can do with them in this comprehensive. Additionally, we’ll show you how to produce puffballs yourself, which can be challenging, but is certainly worth a try!
Information About Puffball Mushrooms
Puffball Mushrooms: Classification
Puffball mushrooms are a particular kind of fungus with a ball-shaped fruit body that bursts on impact and releases a cloud of spores that resemble dust. Puffballs, which include the genera calvatia, calbovist, and lycoperdon, are part of the basidiomycota division of fungi. Puffballs are part of the lycoperdaceae family. The most well-known species of puffball mushroom would be the giant puffball mushroom, which is classified as calvatia gigantea. Although rarely some can reach diameters up to 60 inches and weights as high as 44 pounds, the majority of huge puffballs grow to be up to 20 inches in height and occasionally as large as 35 inches in circumference. Giant puffballs that are mature have a greenish-brown inside, but juvenile puffballs have a white interior. When young, the giant puffball mushroom is edible and a popular mushroom to forage.
Puffball Mushrooms: Key Identifying Features and Appearance
While white puffball mushrooms are the most common, brown varieties also exist. Their spherical appearance, puffy interior, and peculiar spore dispersion make them easily identifiable. Unlike typical mushrooms, puffballs don’t have gills, stems, or even caps. The majority of them resemble little white light bulbs or an inverted pear. The puffball mushroom is spongy or puffy when it is young. The body responds to a light poke by springing back like a comfortable cushion. The internal flesh begins to yellow as it ages and eventually turns brown and powdery. The puffball produces a great cloud of dark olive green or black spores when stomped on or disturbed. It’s important to know the potentially dangerous lookalikes that are often confused for puffballs. The deadly genus of amanita mushrooms, also known as destroying angels, have a similar white roundish appearance as puffballs when they are young. The main way to tell the difference between destroying angels and puffballs is by cutting them in half. Edible puffballs will be solid white all the way through, while destroying angels will have internal cone-shaped pockets. Scleroderma citrinum, which is known as the earthball mushroom, can sometimes look whitish and similar in appearance to puffballs when they are young. This mushroom can cause stomach upset and breathing difficulties if its spores are inhaled. The earthball will have much thicker, denser, and darker flesh than the puffball.
Puffball Mushrooms: Where They Grow
Puffball mushrooms can be found around the world, particularly in North America and areas of China. In warmer areas, puffball mushrooms can be found all year round, even in the winter. They are widely distributed, extremely versatile, and often simple to recognize. While it might be challenging to tell one species from another, it is typically simple to identify a puffball of some form. They appear to be white marbles or golf balls scattered on the woodland floor or in a meadow. Every single puffball mushroom is saprophytic, which means it feeds on decomposing organic matter. On dead or dying trees and stumps, you’ll typically discover little puffballs since wood is the most common type of rotting material.
Puffball Mushrooms: How They Are Used
You can eat giant puffball mushrooms when they are in the younger stages of development. Some claim that they just absorb the tastes surrounding them like tofu and don’t really have a taste of their own. Others have characterized their flavor as being nutty, earthy, and rich. You can potentially purchase puffballs at your local grocer or specialty store if you’re fortunate enough to reside in a region where they’re available. However, most fans of this mushroom will simply have to locate and harvest them in nature. When harvesting a puffball, there are two key issues to think about: The mushroom must first be accurately identified, and then it must be harvested at the appropriate stage of development. Cut it open to see whether it is the correct age. Inside, there ought to be thick, firm, and white flesh. Anything having a brown, black, purple, or yellow inside should not be consumed. Puffballs should be consumed right away because they don’t keep well. Frying them in oil with batter is the most common way to consume them. In addition to cuisine, puffball mushrooms have historically been used in traditional Chinese medicine. This mushroom promotes muscle regeneration and hemostasis. The puffball mushroom can reduce pain and inflammation, according to recent research, although the precise mechanism underlying this benefit is yet unknown. Just as well, the Lakota Native American tribe employed dried spores from enormous puffball mushrooms in their traditional medicines. They would place puffball spores in major wounds to halt bleeding and aid in blood clotting. When used as a coagulant, the dried spores were said to reduce bleeding, though there is little scientific research to back this claim up.
Puffball Mushrooms: Where They Are Purchased
The best chances of seeing giant puffballs on shop shelves are between August and September. Around this season, consumers can look for fresh and dried puffball mushrooms throughout the Midwestern United States. Organic and specialty stores are more likely to have them in stock. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find puffball mushrooms in stores anywhere else. These mushrooms are not cultivated as a crop like white button mushrooms and other culinary mushrooms are. You may be able to search online specialty shops for puffball mushrooms, but they are very few and far between. However, if you would like to grow puffball mushrooms at home, you can find puffball mushroom spores online for around $10 or so.
The Puffball Mushroom Life Cycle and Behavior
The lycoperdaceae family of real puffballs will form a mushroom when the correct circumstances, such as humidity, temperature, and day length, are present. The puffball mushroom matures into a fruit over the course of many weeks that contains astronomically large quantities of tiny spores. One single big puffball mushroom has seven trillion spores in it. Once the spores have matured inside the puffball, microscopic pores begin to open, releasing the spores for the wind to carry. When foraging, take caution since stomping on the puffball will also unleash them all at once. As decomposers of decaying organic material including leaves, wood, dung, etc., puffball mushrooms play a significant role in maintaining the ecosystem. Only the fruiting portion of the fungus produces the mushroom. Mycelium is the name of the organism that creates the fruit, and it hides in dirt or dead wood. Consider the mushroom as the fruit and the mycelium as the tree. Trees and vegetation coexist symbiotically with mycelium. Plants feed mycelium through their roots with carbohydrates, and fungi improve the roots’ capacity to absorb water and the vital nutrients phosphorus and magnesium.
How to Grow Puffball Mushrooms
Puffballs are perhaps one of the more challenging natural mushrooms to produce. However, the procedure is simple, so giving it a shot is not harmful. All you have to do is feed the puffballs molasses and inoculate some distilled water with puffball spores. Give it two days to grow, then scatter it across fertile grassy places and pray for the best. The likelihood that puffballs will develop that year or the following year increases if you do this more frequently. You won’t be able to create a patch that grows back every year since they originate from new spores rather than mature subsurface mycelium. Puffballs develop from new spores, and your chances of getting them to grow properly are slim. It may take weeks or even months for the mushrooms to develop and generate new puffballs above ground, even if you are successful in getting them to grow. But don’t let this demoralize you. It’s worthwhile to try to cultivate additional puffballs if you can locate them in the wild close to your property in the early summer. Find a mature puffball mushroom on your property or wherever you go mushroom foraging to get started. The most crucial step is this one. A mature puffball mushroom that hasn’t yet burst open and emitted spores is what you’re looking for. The end of the summer is the greatest time to search for them. You might not have enough time to grow them again that year if you wait until early fall, but give it a go! One gallon of distilled water, salt, and a jar of molasses are all required. Choose an unopened jar for the molasses to avoid contaminating it with other items in your kitchen. The distilled water should be handled similarly; to minimize the risk of contamination, use jugs that have not been opened. We advise you to purchase multiple jugs. Your odds of success increase as your resources increase. There is plenty of molasses in one jar to fill many jugs. The gallon jug of distilled water should now have one teaspoon of molasses and a pinch of salt added. Then, gently poke a small hole in the puffball mushroom and squeeze the spores inside after giving it a final stir. Do this outside because you’ll probably spread spores everywhere. Additionally, you shouldn’t breathe this combination in. Although the spore phase should be performed with at least a dust mask because puffball mushroom spores are not toxic. In order to disperse the spores uniformly, replace the lid tightly and shake the container. For two days, store the jug in a cool, dark location. During this period, don’t touch it or open it. Find some rich grassy areas and scatter the mixture there after two days. Use at least a half-gallon for each area. So that you have enough to disseminate, it’s preferable to make three to five gallons of your spore mixture. Puffballs like soils high in nitrogen, so try to look for those regions that have recently received fertilization to boost your chances of successfully growing puffball mushrooms. Puffball mushrooms are fascinating fungi, and they are a true delight to forage. While growing them might be tough, puffballs can be an excellent introduction to growing fungi and mushrooms on your own at home. If you happen to grow or find a puffball mushroom while foraging in the woods, just be sure that it is completely white and is the appropriate maturity to eat. The puffball really is a versatile little (or big) mushroom!
Up Next:
Stinkhorn Fungi: Different Types and Why They StinkWhat Do Mushrooms Eat?Discover the Largest Mushroom Ever Grown
Puffball mushrooms are edible so long as the inside of their “puffs” are consistently white in color. What do puffball mushrooms taste like? Puffball mushrooms are relatively flavorless and are often used in the same way as tofu by cooking them with other flavors so that they will absorb them. They have a very mild earthy and nutty flavor. Are puffball mushrooms poisonous? Puffball mushrooms are not poisonous. However, eating a puffball when it is still in the egg stages can cause stomach upset. Some individuals may be allergic to puffball mushrooms as well.
