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Species Information
Summary: Disciseda fruitbodies develop "just beneath the surface of the ground or partly exposed, at maturity breaking free of the ground, flipping over and opening by a (now) apical pore (typically marking the point of attachment of the growing fruiting body)", (Smith). When the upper part of the fruitbody sloughs off, leaving the inner layer to form the top, a flattened acorn appearance results. Features of this species are 1) a fruitbody 1-3cm across, the remains of the outer layer a cottony mass of hyphae and dirt, 2) an inner layer that is pale tan weathering to gray, 3) a spore mass that is olive-brown to umber brown, 4) growth in grass or soil partly exposed, and 5) round minutely warted spores with a short pedicel.
Collections were listed from NE, NJ, OH, SC, VA, (Coker). It was examined from AZ, and is known from many parts of the United States - it has been previously reported from NC, NE, NJ, Ohio, SC, VA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America, (Bates). The University of British Columbia has collections from BC. The herbarium at New York Botanical Garden has a collection of this species from OR collected and determined by S.M. Zeller, an Ellen Trueblood Collection from ID, and collections from AL, AZ, CA, CO, IN, KS, MO, MT, ND, NE, NJ, OH, SD, UT, VA, and Puerto Rico (NYBG collections listed as Disciseda candida (Schwein.) G. Cunn.). The University of Michigan has collections additionally from MI, NC, and TX.
Outer Surface: 1-3cm across, "remains of exoperidium a cottony mass of hyphae and dirt in fresh specimens, collapsing somewhat and becoming +/- membranous" when old, (Smith), compressed spherical, 2-3.5cm wide, 0.5-2cm thick before maturation, 1.5-2.5cm x 0.8-1.5cm when dry, outer layer a thickish sand case held together by the woven white mycelium; surrounded until maturity by the outer layer, the upper and thicker part of which remains attached to the inner layer by a layer of spongy fibrous material, "the lower part tearing irregularly from the upper and separating more or less completely" from the inner layer "and remaining in the ground as broken and inconspicuous fragments", the upper part with the inner layer attached "is now free and is easily knocked out of the cup-like lower part by rain, etc.", turning over so that the exposed part of the inner layer is now above, a small torn hole appears at the place of stem attachment, in the center of the upturned base, and spores escape, (Coker), 2-3.5cm across, 0.5-2cm high, "oval and with a sand-case covering at first but usually seen with a sand-covered base" "and an uncovered inner peridium with a distinct ostiole, silvery gray to slate-gray or dull light brown", the sand-case "is held together by white mycelium", (Miller)
Inner layer: pale tan weathering to gray, (Smith), "rather firm and rigid"; pale brown then silvery gray to slate gray when old; "minutely granular or scurfy on the exposed (lower) part", densely scurfy in the upper part under the outer layer, (Coker)
Spore Mass: olive-brown to umber brown, (Smith), white when fresh, changing "through yellowish olive to brown, at times faintly purplish", (Coker), white, yellowish to dark brown when mature, (Miller)
Stem: with a single rhizomorph-like root when young and fresh, (Smith), no sterile base (Coker), immature fruitbody connected to ground by a rhizomorph, "but turning over at maturity to present the ostiole on top", (Miller)
Odor: none (Miller)
Taste: unknown (Miller)
Microscopic: spores 3.5-4.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, round, minutely warted, with short pedicel (to 2-3 microns long); capillitial threads in this genus are curved, in short pieces, (Smith), spores 3.6-4.4 x 3.6-4.4 microns, round, warted, brown, at times with a tint of purple, with a short pedicel (mucro); basidia 4-spored, 9-14 x 6-7.4 microns, short-pyriform, spore mass chambers extremely minute, 5-25 microns wide, but often longer, basidia arise from irregularly anastomosing strings of threads; capillitium threads 3-5 microns wide, "irregular, not rarely branched, extending inwards from the walls of the peridium", "after maturity breaking up into short pieces"; tramal plates are not formed as in Lycoperdon and Scleroderma, (Coker), spores 3.0-5.5 microns, round, warted, with short pedicel, brown, thick-walled; capillitium "flexuous, thick-walled, occasionally branched, breaking up into short segments", (Miller)
Habitat / Range
in pastures and grassy areas, (Smith), single or cespitose, growing in the soil and partly exposed when fully grown, (Coker), single or in groups in pastures or other grassy and open areas, along paths, in barnyards, etc., (Arora), several to gregarious on ground "in open often dry fields, dunes, desert areas or disturbed areas"; spring, summer, fall, (Miller)
Similar Species
Disciseda subterranea has larger spores, 5.5-9.5 microns, (Coker). Disciseda subterranea has a grayish to bluish gray spore case and larger spores, (Arora). Several other Disciseda species may be found. The herbarium at New York Botanical Garden lists 7 other species names from North America, including Disciseda bovista (Klotzsch) Henn. from Oregon (collection by Ellen Trueblood), (NYBG), and Zeller(3) describes another 5 species names from western North America outside the Pacific Northwest.
