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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a flattened spherical fruitbody with spines that are shed in small sheets, the color white at first, soon becoming pinkish to clay-colored and when old deep brown, 2) an inner layer smooth to scurfy or pitted, and characteristically with a netted pattern, 3) a spore mass that is olive, becoming grayish to purplish brown, 4) a sterile base that is well-developed with chambers 0.1cm wide, at times with a short rooting base, 5) growth on sandy soil in summer and fall, 6) round spores, and 7) capillitial characters.
Lycoperdon marginatum is known from throughout the United States, has been previously reported from AL, AZ, AK, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WV, and WI, Canada and Europe, (Bates). It has been reported from ID and western MT (Ramsey). New York Botanical Garden has collections from ID (determined by W.B. Cooke), ON, AL, CA, CT, FL, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, ME, MI, NC, NH, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WI, Cuba, Colombia, Uruguay. There are Paul Kroeger collections from BC at the University of British Columbia.
Outer Surface: 1-5cm, flattened-spherical, when old pleated on underside; outer layer of fruitbody of pointed warts that separate from inner layer in sheets or chunks, (Smith), 1-5cm across, flattened-spherical; "white at first, soon becoming pinkish to clay-colored" and deep brown when old, outer wall covered with long spines that are shed in small sheets or scales except over sterile base, spines "thick or more slender with tips united", (McKnight), 1-5cm across, less high, depressed-spherical, pleated below with occasional projection downward; white, cracking and flaking off when mature in large chunks, (Ramsey), 1-5cm wide, nearly spherical when young, becoming somewhat flattened to pear-shaped when mature and usually broader than tall; white at first; covered with short spines or warts (less than 0.3cm long) that break off in irregular sheets, exposing the inner layer, (Bessette)
Inner layer: smooth to obscurely pitted; opens by small apical pore, (Ramsey), brown, scurfy to pitted, (McKnight), "pale to dark olive-brown or reddish brown", nearly smooth; "forming a pore-like mouth" on the top when mature, (Bessette)
Spore Mass: olive to grayish brown, (Smith), olive, becoming grayish to purplish brown when mature, (McKnight), "firm and white at first, becoming olive-brown to grayish brown and powdery at maturity", (Bessette)
Stem: sterile base well-developed with chambers 0.1cm wide; at times with short rooting base, (Smith), fruitbody narrowed in lower part "to a persistent, short, thick sterile base with small chambers", (McKnight), sterile base well developed, chambers 0.1cm across, (Ramsey), usually with a narrowing sterile stem-like base (Bessette)
Odor: none (Miller)
Taste: mild (Miller)
Microscopic: spores 3.5-4.2 x 3.5-4.2 microns, minutely ornamented; capillitial threads 3-6 microns wide, (Smith), spores 3.5-4.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, round, smooth or nearly so; capillitium 3-6 microns wide, seldom branched, with attenuated tips, thick-walled, brownish, (McKnight), spores 3.5-4.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, round, minutely punctate to smooth, sometimes with a broken pedicel, pale brown, (Bessette), spores 3.5-4 microns in diameter, round, slightly lighter in color than the capillitium, some with small pieces of pedicels attached, smooth or slightly rough under oil immersion, surrounded by a thin, colorless envelope, pieces of colorless pedicels mixed with the spores; capillitium (1.6)3.5-5.0(8) microns wide, variable in width, a medium yellow-brown, with distinct darker-color walls up to 0.8 microns thick, occasionally pitted, sinuous in the thinner parts, "irregular thickenings along the edge, branched, occasionally septate, tapering both gradually and abruptly", (Bowerman)
Habitat / Range
scattered to numerous, even cespitose [in tufts], on sandy soil; summer and fall, (Ramsey), on sandy soil, summer and fall, (Smith), single, scattered, or in groups, "on the ground, usually on sandy soil, in oak-pine woods, or in nutrient poor habitats; June to October", (Bessette)
Similar Species
Lycoperdon pulcherrimum and Lycoperdon curtisii lack the netted pattern on the inner spore case characteristic for L. marginatum after the scales are shed, (McKnight, who only mentions the netted pattern in the description of Lycoperdon echinatum and says that the inner spore case of L. marginatum is "scurfy to pitted"). L. pulcherrimum has spines 0.3-0.6cm long (Bessette). Lycoperdon curtisii is similar when immature but L. curtisii 1) is usually smaller, 2) has a cortex that is more persistent and does not flake off in large patches, 3) has a paler inner peridium, 4) has smaller spores 3-3.5 microns in diameter, and 5) has colorless or almost colorless capillitium (Bowerman). See also SIMILAR section of Lycoperdon nettyanum.
