Welcome to Mushroom World

Welcome to Mushroom World, your resource for mushroom information. On this site you can search for mushrooms in our database and read about them. You can use this information to identify fungus, but do not eat mushrooms you are not 100% certain of. Use many resources, and be skeptical of your own conclusions. It takes normally years of experience to be able to identify mushrooms reliably. The responsibility for the identification is yours; the site takes no responsibility for damage caused by wrong identifications. Please read the disclaimer.

Browse the database

You can browse the database from the alphabetical list or by going directly to the mushroom records which are listed under the categories poisonous, inedible and edible. You can also search the database based on mushroom name or some property.

Help identifying a mushroom

If you know how a mushroom looks, but need help to identify it, try our Mushroom identification helper. You can browse mushroom pictures there and perhaps find a match.

If this site cannot help you, we recommend mushroomobserver.org, which is a community site for mushroom identifications. There are also Facebook groups for mushroom identifications like the Mushroom Identification - public group.

Today's Mushroom

Today's mushroom is Bovista plumbea (Paltry Puffball). The mushroom is Edible. It grows in Western Europe, California.

Description: This small, white, puffball, often referred to as the paltry puffball, is attached to the stony surface by several strands. It often lives scattered to clustered in disturbed areas, especially in sparse grass and pastures.

Fruiting body attached to the substrate by a tuft of mycelium, and spherical to slightly compressed. The surface is white, becoming buff to pale-tan and minutely tomentose. It is falling away in flakes at maturity to reveal dark grey papery contents. Spores are olive to sepia-brown.

Bovista plumbea on the www.first-nature.com web site.
Bovista plumbea on Wikipedia.

Dimensions: 2-3 cm diameter * 2-3 cm tall

If you are interested in this mushroom, look it up in our database. You can find more detailed pictures there.