Giant Puffball Calvatia gigantea

A large, white, typically very spherical fungus which can grow up to the size of a football!

Conservation status in Norfolk

Not threatened

How to help

Please do not pick the fruiting bodies. These need to be allowed to produce and release their spores for reproduction.

Information on the Giant Puffball

How to recognise

If the fungus is large, white and more or less spherical it is almost certainly a giant puffball. Although much larger specimens have been recorded, most are about the size of a football. The inside is initially white but darkens to become a mass of spores which are liberated when the skin splits.

Where to see

Widespread but not that common in Norfolk. Can occur in groups in fields but more often seen in verges and hedgerows, often where the soil nutrient level has been raised.

When to see

Autumn

Did you know?

An old country name for the giant puffball is bulfe. Pieces of the dried spongy spore-mass were kept to staunch bleeding in injured farm animals – and, no doubt, humans.

Finding out more

Fungus.org.uk

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