Potato Eartball

[Ditiola]

HI

Is anyone else finding the Potato Eartball (Scleroderma bovista)?

It seems to be a good year for it around Derby. I have seen it at 7 sites so far this autumn. It seems to prefer man-made habitats such as Parks and gardens especially near paths and gullies near grass edges and around buildings, sometimes pushing up tarmac or squeezing between paving slabs etc.

It has a much thinner skin than the common earthball and has spores 10-13 microns without the 2.5 micron ornamentation which is costate-spinose / reticulate and this adds another 5 microns to the diameter. You need to look carefully under oil immersion to see the reticulation because as it is so high and may break up, it can appear more spiny than reticulated. It also has clap connections in the hypahe which are absent in the similar looking S.nicrescens.

Peter

This photo shows it in a typical habitat

[Chris Yeates]

hi Peter

I have posted an image of the spores at: Potato Earthball - Scleroderma bovista

have you noticed which trees it's growing with? It's said to often have an association with limes - not a usual associate for most fungi

PS please do be careful if you are finding specimens with "clap connections"

lol

Chris

[Ditiola]

The one's in the photo are 4m from a Birch tree (no other trees nearby), at another site they are 5m and 10m from a Lime tree (no other trees nearby) and at another site they are 4m from an ornamental Maple and 12m from a Lime tree.

Peter