Calvatia gigantea
| Giant puffball | |
|---|---|
| |
| Giant puffball with a 11.7 x 5.4 cm GPS receiver for scale | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Agaricaceae |
| Genus: | Calvatia |
| Species: | C. gigantea
|
| Binomial name | |
| Calvatia gigantea | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Langermannia gigantea | |
Calvatia gigantea | |
|---|---|
 | Glebal hymenium |
 | No distinct cap |
 | Hymenium attachment is not applicable |
| Lacks a stipe |
 | Spore print is brown |
 | Ecology is saprotrophic |
 | Edibility is choice or inedible |
Calvatia gigantea, commonly known in English as the giant puffball, is a puffball mushroom found in meadows, fields, and deciduous forests in late summer and autumn. It is found in temperate areas throughout the world.
Taxonomy
[edit]The classification of this species has been revised in recent decades. Puffballs, earthballs, earthstars, stinkhorns and several other kinds of fungi were once thought to be related and were known as the gasteromycetes or 'stomach' fungi, because the fertile material develops inside spherical or pear-shaped fruitbodies; however, this group is now known to be polyphyletic.[1][2][3][4]
Today, some authors place the giant puffball and other members of genus Calvatia in order Agaricales. The giant puffball has also been placed in two other genera, Lycoperdon and Langermannia, in years past. The current view is that the giant puffball belongs in Calvatia.[5]
Description
[edit]Calvatia gigantea grows up to 10–50 centimetres (4–19+1⁄2 in) wide and high.[6][7] It can grow to 80 cm diameter and weigh several kilograms.[1] A specimen weighing over 23 kg (51 lb) was recorded in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.[8]
The interior of an immature puffball is white, while that of a mature specimen is greenish brown.[9][10][verification needed] The fruiting body of a puffball mushroom develops within a few weeks and soon begins to decompose and rot, at which point it becomes dangerous to eat. Unlike most mushrooms, all the spores of the giant puffball are created inside the fruiting body; large specimens can easily contain several trillion. The spores are yellowish, smooth, and 3–6 μm in size.[9][10][verification needed] They produce a white spore print when young, while it is olive with an unpleasant smell in age.[7] Prof. John Lindley has calculated that C. gigantea grows at a rate of sixty million new cells per minute[11] on its way to making seven quintillion (7,000,000,000,000,000,000) spores.[12]
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Growing in a deciduous forest -
Growing in Belgium -
Cut, with a fork for scale -
Old specimen
Similar species
[edit]Giant puffballs resemble the poisonous earthball (Scleroderma citrinum). The latter are distinguished by a much firmer, elastic fruiting body, and having an interior that becomes dark purplish-black with white reticulation early in development.
Identification techniques make it relatively easy to distinguish from others of its genus.[7]
Habitat and distribution
[edit]The giant puffball is commonly found in meadows, fields, and deciduous forests in late summer and autumn. It is found in temperate areas throughout the world.[13]
Conservation
[edit]It is widespread and common in the United Kingdom[13] and North America (August–October) except for the southeast United States.[7] It is protected in parts of Poland and is of conservation concern in Norway.[13]
Uses
[edit]
Culinary
[edit]The large white mushrooms are edible when young, as are all true puffballs, but they can cause digestive issues if the spores have begun to form—as indicated by the flesh being yellowish or greenish-brown instead of pure white.[9][10][verification needed] An overripe puffball will fall apart when touched or if cut open, and should be discarded.[14] Some people experience a laxative effect from eating this species.[9]
Immature gilled species still contained within their universal veil can look similar to puffballs. Many such species are poisonous, or even deadly. To distinguish puffballs from such poisonous fungi, they are cut open; edible puffballs have a solid white interior and have "no gills or other imperfections".[15][16]
Medical
[edit]Puffballs are a known styptic and have long been used as wound dressing, either in powdered form or as slices 3 cm thick.[17] Authors Hui-Yeng Y. Yap, Mohammad Farhan Ariffeen Rosli, et al. found evidence to suggest that C. gigantea was "traditionally used by American Indians, Nigerian and German folks" for this purpose. The authors, however, did not specify the preferred form of wound dressing (e.g., powdered or sliced). [18]
New Zealand Māori used it to stem bleeding and treat burns, and also a food source.[19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Calvatia gigantea, Giant Puffball, identification". first-nature.com. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ Hibbett DS, et al. (1997). "Evolution of gilled mushrooms and puffballs inferred from ribosomal DNA sequences". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 94 (22): 12002–12006. Bibcode:1997PNAS...9412002H. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.22.12002. PMC 23683. PMID 9342352.
- ^ Kruger D, et al. (2001). "The Lycoperdales. A molecular approach to the systematics of some gasteroid mushrooms". Mycologia. 93 (5): 947–957. doi:10.2307/3761759. JSTOR 3761759.
- ^ Binder M, Bresinsky A (2002). "Derivation of a polymorphic lineage of gasteromycetes from boletoid ancestors". Mycologia. 94 (1): 85–98. doi:10.2307/3761848. JSTOR 3761848. PMID 21156480.
- ^ Volk, First. "Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for August 1998". Retrieved 6 October 2012.
- ^ "Giant Puffball". Missouri Department of Conservation. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ a b c d Audubon (2023). Mushrooms of North America. Knopf. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-593-31998-7.
- ^ Star, Signe Langford Special to the (2020-09-20). "It's Giant Puffball mushroom season. Here's how to identify and prepare them". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ a b c d Arora, David (1986) [1979]. Mushrooms Demystified (2nd ed.). Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. pp. 682–83. ISBN 978-0-89815-170-1.
- ^ a b c Bessette, Alan E. (1997). Mushrooms of Northeastern North America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. pp. 453–454. ISBN 978-0-8156-0388-7.
- ^ Sydney Smith, "Edible Fungi", Edenburgh Review, (April 1869) pp. 337-338.
- ^ Tudge, Colin (2000). The Variety of Life. Oxford, England: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 160.
- ^ a b c "Calvatia gigantea (giant puffball)", Discover plants and fungi, www.kew.org, archived from the original on 2016-12-22, retrieved 8 August 2015
- ^ Lovesick Lake Native Women's Association (1985). The Rural and Native Heritage Cookbook (1 ed.). Burleigh Falls, Ontario: Paul-Printing (Community Publication). p. 101. ISBN 0-9692-255-0-4.
- ^ Meuninck, Jim (2017). Foraging Mushrooms Oregon: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Mushrooms. Falcon Guides. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-4930-2669-2.
- ^ Star, Signe Langford Special to the (2020-09-20). "It's Giant Puffball mushroom season. Here's how to identify and prepare them". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ Davies, Barry (2001). SAS mountain and arctic survival. London: Virgin. p. 87. ISBN 9780753505991.
- ^ Yap, Hui-Yeng Y.; Ariffeen Rosli, Mohammad Farhan; Tan, Soon-Hao; Kong, Boon-Hong; Fung, Shin-Yee (2023). "The Wound Healing Potential of Lignosus rhinocerus and Other Ethno-myco Wound Healing Agents". Mycobiology. 51 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1080/12298093.2022.2164641. ISSN 1229-8093. PMC 9946334. PMID 36846625.
- ^ Sisson, Liv; Vigus, Paula (2023). Fungi of Aotearoa: a curious forager's field guide. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-1-76104-787-9. OCLC 1372569849.
Further reading
[edit]- Zhu, Wenyou; Guo, Chunxia; Luo, Fan (January 2015). "Optimization of Calvatia gigantea myceliaproduction from distillery wastewater". Journal of the Institute of Brewing. 121 (1): 78–86. doi:10.1002/jib.200.
- Kivrak, Ibrahim; Kivrak, Seyda; Harmandar, Mansur (1 September 2014). "Free amino acid profiling in the giant puffball mushroom (Calvatia gigantea) using UPLC-MS/MS". Food Chemistry. 158: 88–92. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.02.108. PMID 24731318.
- Coetzee, Johannes C.; Van Wyk, Abraham E. (January 2013). "Nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on Calvatia (Lycoperdaceae) and associated genera". Mycotaxon. 121 (1): 29–36. doi:10.5248/121.29. hdl:2263/21213.