Calbovista subsculpta Morse ex M.T. Seidl
sculptured puffball
Agaricaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
sculptured puffball
Agaricaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) medium sized, somewhat spherical fruitbodies that are whitish to cream-colored but become more grayish or yellow-brownish, 2) a thick outer layer with truncate pyramidal warts about 1.3cm wide, 3) a thin, fragile inner layer, 4) a white spore mass that becomes yellow then brown or purplish brown, 5) growth in the mountains under conifers, 6) round, slightly warty spores with pedicels up to 3 microns long, and 7) capillitium with short thorn-like branches. A variation with gray color, very rudimentary squamule formation, and spores 4-6(7-12) microns in diameter (more giant spores and spores have thicker walls) was described by A.H. Smith from Idaho as var. fumosa, (Smith(31)), but this was based on a species name that was not valid at the time, (Seidl).
Odor:
none (Miller)
Taste:
pleasant (Miller)
Microscopic:
spores 3-5 x 3-5 microns, round, verrucose, with pedicel up to 3.0 microns long, ochraceous brown to dark brown in mass, (Seidl), spores 3-5 x 3-5 microns, round, smooth to faintly warted, ochraceous brown, with one droplet, with colorless pedicel up to 2.5 microns long, epispore 0.5 microns thick; basidia 4-spored, 10-25 x 5-7.5 microns, clavate; capillitium "free, consisting of short, discrete units with abundant antler-like branching, much entangled", "secondary branches bluntly pointed, not varying much in width from main branch", "threads 5-10 microns wide, wall thick up to 2.5 microns, becoming thinner towards the tips", not septate, "not pitted, ochraceous yellow, concolorous", (Morse), spores 3-5 x 3-5 microns, nearly smooth; capillitial threads with "short thorn-like branches", (McKnight)
Notes:
Calbovista subsculpta has been found in WA, ID, CA, and CO, (Morse), BC (in Redhead, and collection from BC deposited by Paul Kroeger at the University of British Columbia), and OR (Zeller). It occurs in the western mountains of North America including the following ranges: Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Olympics, Rocky Mountains and mountains of northern Idaho, (Seidl).
EDIBILITY
edible but only when spore mass is white, (Phillips)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Calvatia sculpta has longer, sharper spines (up to 2.5cm long), but is distinguished most reliably from Calbovista subsculpta microscopically by the different capillitium, (Ammirati). C. sculpta has different capillitium and spores, as well as a spore mass that is not as dark, (Morse).Habitat
single to gregarious, occasionally cespitose [in tufts], in subalpine to alpine habitats, April to August, (Seidl), gregarious, usually single, but occasionally cespitose [in tufts], "in disintegrated rock mixed with soil or in open coniferous forest, 3,000-11,000 feet above sea level", April to August, (Morse), under conifers in the mountains, often under ponderosa pine on the eastern slope of the Cascades, (Ammirati), single to gregarious in subalpine open areas near forest edge, April to August, (Ramsey)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hydnum pinastri Fr.
Leucogyrophana pinastri (Fr.: Fr.) Ginns & Weresub Mem.