Puffball & Friends

Puffballs are fungi, so named because clouds of brown dust-like spores are emitted when the mature fruitbody bursts or is impacted. Puffballs are in the division Basidiomycota and encompass several genera, including Calvatia, Calbovista and Lycoperdon. True puffballs do not have a visible stalk or stem.

Phallaceae is a family of fungi, commonly known as stinkhorn mushrooms, within the order Phallales. Stinkhorns have a worldwide distribution. They are known for their foul-smelling, sticky spore masses, or gleba, borne on the end of a stalk called the receptaculum.