Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
GENUS Calvatia
Edible and delicious: CALVATIA MAXIMA
(Giant Puffball)
This is undoubtedly one of the largest of all the fungi and at
times it attains an almost unbelievable size. Schweinitz, one of the
first American students of fungi, said about a hundred years ago
that this puffball would reach a diameter of 3 feet. Specimens as
large as a foot in diameter are common, and a specimen found in
Minnesota several years ago was more than 2 feet high and
weighed forty-five pounds. It has been estimated that a fairly
large one would contain approximately eighteen billion spores.
This plant is seldom abundant, but it is not rare; some are
found every year, occasionally in groups of live to ten or even
more, in meadows, pastures, or woods during summer and fall.
When sliced and fried it has few equals, but like all puffballs it is
good to eat only as long as it is white and solid inside. The fruit
bodies are nearly spherical, or else somewhat greater in height
than in diameter, white and smooth when young, becoming tan
or brown at maturity, when the upper part of the wall collapses
to allow the spores to escape.
Edible and choice; CALVATIA CAELATA (Carved
Puffball); C. CYATHIFORMIS (Vase-shaped Puffball)
These two species are probably more common than C. max'nua,
being found in some abundance every year in pastures and open
fields (Figures 2 and 3). They look very much alike, averaging
from 4 to 6 inches in diameter and slightly more than that in
height, with a white, warty surface. Usually the upper part is
nearly spherical but narrows downward to a thick, stem-like base.
The upper part of the wall crumbles away at maturity, leaving
a cup-shaped structure filled with spores. The mature spores of
C. caelata are chocolate brown in color, and those of C. cyathi-
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