Sample #12: Arachnion
album “Puffball”
Figure 1: Arachmion album freshly collected; note absence of stem and traditional pileus
Figure 2: detail of matured spores contained inside the peridium; no compartments, arranged in a globe
Figure 3: detail of surface of peridium, fractured in starlike rays
Figure 4: individual spores under magnification
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Family: Agaricaceae
Collection Date: 16 October, 2016
Collector: Kristen Maslach
Habitat: open fields and soil;
Location: collection on a dead tree stump, Mantua, Ohio
Description: gleba spore sack full of sand-like particles;
Key Used: Arora, David (1986). Mushrooms
Demystified. New York City, New
York: Ten Speed Press: an association of Random House Inc.
Steps for Keying:
Basidiomycete:
pg 52
Puffballs
and Earthstars: “fruiting body round to oval … interior (spore mass) firm when
young but powdery and dusty when mature (pg 54)
Not a
bird’s nest: “fruiting body [not] consisting of a “nest” (cup, vase, or bowl)
containing one or more “eggs” (peridioles) (pg676)”
Not
“emerging as a cylindrical, phallic, branched, tentacled or lattice structure
(pg 676)”
“Stalk
rudimentary or absent (pg 676)
“spore
mass firm and solid when young…powdery or cottony when mature and usually
dispersing fairly soon; columella (internal stalk) typically absent (pg 676)”
Not
“splitting into several starlike rays which unfold or bend (pg 679)”
Contains
no peridioles
“fruiting
body puff-like … lacking a columella and stalk, (pg 679)”, found in sandy soil
or open places
Resources:
Very nice detailed pictures!
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