Large Puff Balls - Jemez Mountains

When I was a kid, I liked to stamp on puff balls and see the smoke-like spores fly away from under my foot. The puff balls I remember were small. Those shown below are as wide as my size 10 shoe. These are by no means the largest puffballs; some puffballs are as large as a watermelon. 


Puffballs belong to the family Agaricaceae or true puffballs and are part of the Order Agaricales.

The puffballs pictured below were growing at an altitude between 9,000-10,000 feet in the Jemez Mountains exactly where I had spotted the dusky grouse. The area contained at least 5 puffballs.


Billions of spores are contained beneath the puffballs outer skin which begins to split as the spores mature. Once the skin splits open, the spores are blown out and carried away by the wind.


The sequence of three photographs (A-C)  show some of the changes that occur on the skin of the puffball as the spores mature. The photos were taken about a week apart and do not necessarily show the same puffball.

A.  The lip balm in the picture below is 2 5/8 inches long. Based on that length the puffball is about 4.5 - 5 inches across. A baseball is about 3 inches in diameter.

B. Note the warty appearance of the puffball surface but there are no holes in it yet.

C. The puffballs began to open up by the third week. Note, the puffball is full of billions and billions of brown spores.

Based on where the puffballs were located and on their size and appearance they appear to belong to the genus Calvatia or giant puffballs which range in size from a baseball to a basketball. Additionally, puffballs of the genus Calvatia are reported to form a warty surface and to disintegrate when they get old. That appears to have occurred with the puffballs pictured above.


Most puffballs are reported to be edible provided they are harvested when they are young and are all white inside (like all mushrooms, puffballs should only be collected for eating by someone experienced in their proper identification). Those in the pictures of this blog are much too old to eat.

A recipe for parmesan puffballs is available here. Parmesan Puffballs