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Puffball Mushroom
Genus Scleroderma
32.1995, -110.968
Field Notes
Description:
Surprised to see more than one species of mushroom growing in the Sonoran desert! Found these guys near a space where I had recently sown some seeds in hopes of growing a tree. At first, they look like the white rocks next to them, until you poke them and realize that not all rocks puff out lavender spores when you touch them.
Habitat:
There are actually quite a few growing in my yard, and they only get to be about this big. They love the shade, as I have always found them within inches of a tall plant that can provide such a cool environment, and they might be mycorrhizal with a very common kind of weed, the Silverleaf Nightshade (http://www.projectnoah.org/my/spottings)
Notes:
Along with the Desert Shaggy Mane mushroom (Podaxis pistillarus), this is the only other mushroom I've found growing in the urbanized desert. About the mushroom: they are very weakly attached to the earth, as I thought I saw them moving slightly every day. I tested one out, and after pulling it out of the ground, it showed no sign of even mycelium or that there was even anything underneath it. It belongs to the genus Scleroderma that feature smooth-skinned puffballs, stalkless fungi, and have been grouped based on the spores (reticulate, non-reticulate, or somewhere inbetween). I would choose S. laeve or S reae, as they are shown to favor arid locations and grows in sandy regions, i.e. my backyard. With the help of a microscope, absolute identification would become a reality in this genus that is depends so much on the spores!
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