Estimated value
$3–10/lb fresh
Only snow-white interior. Chefs buy young soccer-ball specimens. Low price, high wow.
culinary · edible
Giant Puffball
Calvatia gigantea
Also called Langermannia
Field marks
- Spore print
- Olive-brown when mature (do not eat then)
- Smell
- Mild, mushroomy
- Trees / hosts
- Open ground; not mycorrhizal with a single tree
- Elevation
- Low valleys and farms.
Description
White soccer-ball to basketball fungus in meadows. Interior must be pure white tofu — any yellow, purple, or developing mushroom shape inside is a reject (and possibly a deadly Amanita egg).
Where it grows
Rich grassland, forest edges.
How to find it
Pasture edges, orchards, rich meadows after rain. Visible from the road.
How to pick
Slice in the field from top to bottom. Pure white = keep. Anything with a stalk, gills, or color inside = Amanita button, abort.
Medicinal notes
Traditional wound puff (spores) is outdated and not recommended. Culinary when white.
Psychoactive / controlled
None.
Law
Legal food.
Lookalikes
- Amanita egg
Slicing reveals a baby mushroom with cap, gills, stem. Deadly if eaten. Always section puffballs.
Earthballs (Scleroderma)
Purple-black, hard interior. Toxic.
Field ID ticket
Tick every required mark in the woods. 0/3 required. This still is not laboratory certainty.
Do not eat or sell this specimen. Missing required marks.