Purple spored puffball

The fruiting body is 2–8 in high and/or broad. When young it is relatively smooth and spherical or slightly flattened and purplish or brownish. It has a chocolate-brown or purple-colored gleba with a smooth exoperidium. As it matures it often becomes pear or irregularly-shaped and the exterior skin takes on a dark or silvery colour. As it ages the exterior dries and cracks and the fleshy spore-bearing interior breaks away to be distributed by wind and rain. After the spores completely disperse, "a soft leathery cup-shaped sterile base lightly rooted to the ground remains."