Giant puffball
Calvatia gigantea · 大马勃
Common蘑菇科🔥 Edible With Preparation
Sources report it requires expert processing before it can be eaten; cases of poisoning from improper handling have been recorded.
The same species can be described differently across regions and stages of maturity, and countless look-alike species cannot be told apart by eye. Never use the information on this page to judge whether a real mushroom is safe to eat.
How to Tell
- A large white ball, growing as big as a soccer ball
- Surface smooth, stemless, sitting directly on the ground
- Grows in meadows and pastures; flesh pure white inside when young
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 蘑菇科
- Hymenium
- Gleba
- Grows On
- Grassland
- How Big
- 10–80 cm (overall size)
- Encounter Rate
- Common
- Habitat
- Grassland and woodland edges
Easily Confused With
Common puffballWhite and pear-shaped, covered in tiny conical spines
Common earthballGiant puffball is huge, pure white and smooth; earthball is small, yellow-brown and cracked.Fun Fact
A single giant puffball can produce several trillion spores — if every one of them survived, two generations later their combined mass would outweigh the Earth.
More in this family
- Almond mushroom
- Button mushroom
- Deadly dapperling
- Field mushroom
- Flowerpot parasol
- Green-spored parasol
- Horse mushroom
- Parasol mushroom
- Shaggy ink cap
- Shaggy parasol
- Yellow stainer