Common Edible Mushrooms

Puffballs
Anyone who has kicked a ripe puffball and has seen the cloud
of powdery dust it shoots out knows why it was given this name,
but not everyone knows that the little puff of powder contains
millions of spores that serve to disseminate the fungus over the
surface of the earth. The curiosity of man, which leads him to
pick up such plants — perhaps even his anger at seeing an unknown
plant, which leads him to destroy it with a kick — doubtless
aids the humble puffball in liberating its spores. The tops of
some puffballs crumble away at maturity, allowing the wind
to spread the spores. Other kinds have only a pore at the top
through which the spores escape, the force of even a gentle raindrop
on the outside covering being enough to send out a million
spores or so. In anything but a downpour these spores will travel
some distance before being washed out of the air. Obviously there
is a tremendous waste of spores, since the fungus depends upon
the whims of the wind, and out of the billions of spores produced
by a fair-sized specimen probably only a very few ever find a
suitable place to grow.
Before the days of modern medicine, puffball spores were used
as a styptic powder to stop bleeding, and even today in some
places they are thought to be effective in the treatment of certain
disorders. Children often believe that if puffball spores get
into the eyes they will cause blindness, but this of course is pure
superstition.
All the above-ground puffballs are good to eat, and they are
believed by many to be superior to any other edible fungi (see
"The Foolproof Four"). They must be picked while still solid
and white inside and should be examined fairly carefully for the
presence of maggots. The pear-shaped puffball, Lycoperdon pyrijorme
(Figure 2, page 20), is found in groups on rotten wood,
and though small is of excellent flavor.
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