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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a spherical fruitbody that is smooth when young, then scaly by cracking that starts in top part, finally appearing like leopard skin with polygonal flat or slightly pyramidal dark brown scales on a pale yellowish background, 2) the covering about 0.1cm thick, fleshy-rubbery to hard and whitish or yellowish, 3) a spore mass that is white and fleshy-rubbery becoming powdery and dark violet or dark olive-brown with very thin yellow filaments, 4) the surface, flesh, and spore mass all turning reddish when injured in the young state, 5) well developed mycelial stem-like extension at the base, 6) growth on soil or occasionally wood scraps, and 7) round spiny spores.
It is not common in the Pacific Northwest. It has been reported from BC (Schalkwijk-Barendsen). Collections were examined from OR, ON, AL, CA, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, WI, WV, Jamaica, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Tunisia, South Africa, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, and New Zealand, (Guzman), and Cameroon and Australia, (Sims). A Paul Kroeger collection from BC is at the University of British Columbia. It also occurs in WA (M. Beug, pers. comm.).
Outer Surface: (0.5)1-4(5.5)cm across, spherical or slightly pear-shaped, with the top part blunt; smooth when young, like leather, then scaly by cracking that starts in the apical part, finally appearing like leopard skin (like S. verrucosum), the scales well defined in the apical part of the fruitbody: polygonal, flat or slightly pyramidal, less than 0.1cm across, at times falling off, colored dark brown in contrast to the yellowish whitish color of the surface; the surface when young readily turns dark reddish when rubbed or cut; peridium [covering] about 0.1cm thick, its consistency fleshy and rubbery when fresh and young, or hard and fragile when dry and mature, and its color whitish or yellowish, readily turning dark reddish when cut (at least when young); dehiscence [opening] is irregular across an apical pore that is conspicuous but not well defined, (Guzman), 1.5-4cm across, tuber-like, spherical to somewhat pear-shaped; appressed brownish scales on yellowish background, peridium [covering] thin, leathery, tough, ruptures irregularly at the top, (Breitenbach), "yellow-brown to tawny-gold; dotted with tiny darker brown scales, each surrounded with a clear area", (Phillips), surface (of peridium) areolate [cracked like dried mud], (Sims), 1.5-5cm across, scales coffee-colored on a yellow background without cracks, (there seem to be two variations: one where the scales are more like freckles on an expanded skin and another where the edges of the scales actually peel back and stand out as scales), peridium 0.1cm thick, "opening by apical pore or occasional fissure", (Ramsey)
Spore Mass: white when young, fleshy-rubbery, later powdery and dark violet or dark olive-brown with very thin yellow filaments that give a cottony aspect; readily turning dark reddish when cut or rubbed, at least when young, (Guzman), firm and whitish when young, "then brown to black and marbled with white, powdery and with interspersed glebal hyphae when mature, without capillitium", (Breitenbach), "purplish-coffee color with yellow threads", (Ramsey)
Stem: sessile or at times more or less pseudostipitate [with a pseudostem], whitish mycelium well developed, reaching at times 2cm deep, (Guzman), usually with a short longitudinally furrowed stem, 1-2cm long, almost completely buried, with attached remains of mycelium and soil at base, yellowish, bald to finely scaly, (Breitenbach), base sessile to occasionally extended slightly (Ramsey)
Odor: slightly sweet, fungous, or not appreciable, (Guzman), strong when cut open, unpleasant, (Phillips)
Taste: slightly sweet, fungous, or not appreciable, (Guzman)
Microscopic: spores (10)11-17(18) x (10)11-17(18) microns, round, including the spines that are 0.5-2 microns long, yellowish brown in KOH with the spines colorless to yellowish, the spines tending to fragment at maturity; when very immature spores 9-14 x 9-14 microns, very thick-walled and almost smooth; basidia not observed; clamp connections absent, (Guzman), spores 11-13 x 11-13 microns excluding spines, round, with sharp spines up to 2 microns long; basidia not seen, clamp connections not observed, (Breitenbach), spores 10-18 x 10-18 microns, round, with abundant spines up to 1.5 microns high, (Phillips), spores 11-15 x 11-15 with long narrow spines < 2 microns long, (Sims), spores 9-14 microns in diameter excluding spines, round, dark brown; no capillitium, (Buczacki)
Habitat / Range
gregarious to cespitose, sometimes single, developing in soil or humus, occasionally on scraps of wood, in woods and open places, including gardens, in damp shady places, (Guzman), single to gregarious, on soil "at forest edges, as well as in fallow fields and in hardwood forests", summer to fall, (Breitenbach), in deciduous and conifer woods (Ramsey)
Similar Species
Scleroderma verrucosum is covered in small scales (as opposed to having areolate surface cracked like dried mud) and has smaller spores 8-13 microns with either blunt conic spines or sharp narrow ones <1 micron long (as opposed to long narrow spines <2 microns), (Sims). S. verrucosum is smooth at first then with fine non-areolate scales, whereas S. areolatum is ornamented from the outset by fine areolate scales, (Courtecuisse). Scleroderma cepa has a thicker, smoother peridium (usually more than 0.1cm when dry), opens in star-like fashion, and has smaller spores (7.5)8.8-12(13.6) microns in diameter, (Guzman). Scleroderma laeve has a thicker, smoother peridium, opens in star-like fashion, and has smaller spores (9)10.2-13.6(15.2) microns in diameter, (Guzman). Scleroderma albidum has a thicker peridium (over 0.1cm), smooth or cracked on the apical part or with poorly defined scales the same color as the background, but with the cracks often yellowish orange, and the opening is star-like, whereas S. areolatum has a peridium less than 0.1cm thick, fine scales without cracking, and dehiscence across an apical pore, (Guzman). Scleroderma citrinum has prominent inherent rosette-like scales (i.e. each scale often with a central wart), and spores are strongly reticulate and smaller (8-13 microns across), (Arora). Other Pacific Northwest species have reticulate or somewhat reticulate spores. See also SIMILAR section of Scleroderma bovista, Scleroderma floridanum, Scleroderma hypogaeum, and Scleroderma polyrhizum.
