Calbovista subsculpta       Sculptured Giant Puffball    

photo: Jim Ginns   

This puffball is found in the western regions of Canada and the USA.   At maturity the low warts of the outer peridium disappear and the surface breaks up into angular pieces to give the puffball a distinctive mosaic appearance. 

Comments from Jim Ginns

Calbovatia subsculpta Morse occurred as a single, 6 cm diam basidiome at the forest edge among mosses over bedrock with Symphoricarpus albus, and Amelanchier alnifolia. Although generally considered a subalpine puffball, this one grew in a Ponderosa Pine forest at low elevation (ca. 550 m in Penticton, British Columbia) where none of the subalpine flora occurs. By the time the photo was taken (30 September 2001) the striking areolate, soccerball-like surface of the young puffballs had worn away. The powdery gleba is exposed when the exoperidium has exfoliated.