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Scleroderma (genus)

 

 
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Scleroderma (genus)
 
 
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Scleroderma is a genus of fungi, commonly known as earth balls, now known to belong to the Boletales
Boletales

The Boletales are an order of agaricomycetes, containing a large number of species with a diverse array of fruiting body types. The boletes are the best known members of this group, and until recently, the Boletales were thought to only contain boletes....
 order. The best known species are S. citrinum
Scleroderma citrinum

Scleroderma citrinum, known as the "pigskin poison puffball," "common earthball," or "common earth ball," is the most common species of Scleroderma in the United Kingdom and occurs widely in woods, heathland and in short grass from Autumn to Winter....
 and S. verrucosum. They are found worldwide. Various members of this genus are used as inoculation symbionts to colonize and promote the growth of tree seedlings in nurseries.

peridium (outer wall), which may be smooth or warted, is very thick, tough, and persistent.






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Scleroderma is a genus of fungi, commonly known as earth balls, now known to belong to the Boletales
Boletales

The Boletales are an order of agaricomycetes, containing a large number of species with a diverse array of fruiting body types. The boletes are the best known members of this group, and until recently, the Boletales were thought to only contain boletes....
 order. The best known species are S. citrinum
Scleroderma citrinum

Scleroderma citrinum, known as the "pigskin poison puffball," "common earthball," or "common earth ball," is the most common species of Scleroderma in the United Kingdom and occurs widely in woods, heathland and in short grass from Autumn to Winter....
 and S. verrucosum. They are found worldwide. Various members of this genus are used as inoculation symbionts to colonize and promote the growth of tree seedlings in nurseries.

Description

The peridium (outer wall), which may be smooth or warted, is very thick, tough, and persistent. At maturity it splits irregularly over the upper part of the basidiocarp
Basidiocarp

A basidiocarp, basidiome or basidioma , is the sporocarp of a basidiomycete, the multi-cellular structure on which the spore-producing hymenium is borne....
 to reveal the dark gleba
Gleba

Gleba is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn.The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp....
 underneath. Spore
Spore

In biology, a spore is a reproduction structure that is adapted for biological dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions....
s are produced in small brownish-purple, pea-like bodies called peridioles that initially are outlined by wall-like aggregations of white hyphae. These peridioles disintegrate as the fruit body matures, and by the time the peridium splits open, only a powdery mass of dark spores is visible. Spores are roughly spherical in shape with warts or reticulate ornamentation, thick-walled, and brown. Taxa are ectomycorrhizal with shrubs and trees, and have a worldwide distribution.

See also: List of Scleroderma species
List of Scleroderma species

Species* Scleroderma albidum Pat. & Trab. * Scleroderma ambiguum Petri* Scleroderma anomalum Ces.* Scleroderma arenicola Zeller ...