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Soft Puffball
A dull brown, pear-shaped puffball with a fine coat of granules and short spines and a well-developed stem-like base. Its sterile base is chambered and dark olive-brown with lilac tints. It is separated from similar brown puffballs mainly by its coarsely warted spores.
Reported edible when young and white inside, but MykoWeb lists its edibility as unknown; not recommended. Slice every puffball top to bottom before eating: it must be pure white and uniform inside. A cap-and-gill outline means a young Amanita egg, possibly deadly (amatoxins); a firm, thick-skinned ball that is purple-black inside is a poisonous Scleroderma earthball.
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