English: Common earthball; Pigskin poison puffball; Common earth ball.
Names: Scleroderma aurantium; Scleroderma vulgare.
Region: most common species of earthball in the UK.
Habitat: woods, heathland, short grass.
Content: sclerocitrin, norbadione A, xerocomic acid, badione A.
Use: dye fungus.
MycologyFungus; earthball just breaks up to release the spores; much firmer flesh and a dark gleba (interior) much earlier in development than puffballs; peridium, or outer wall, is thick, firm, ochre yellow, with irregular warts; may be parasitized by Pseudoboletus parasiticus.
Stem: lacking.