Brown Puffball Bovista nigrescens Pers. (illustrated 60% life size) Fruit body 3–6cm across, subglobose, slightly pointed below, attached to the substrate by a single mycelial cord which often breaks, leaving the fruit body free to roll in the wind; outer wall white at first, flaking off in large scales at maturity; inner wall dark purple-brown to blackish, opening by a large, irregular pore or extensive splitting and cracking. Gleba dark purple-brown; sterile base absent. Capillitium of highly branched, dendroid, brown elements. Spores 4.5–6¼ in diameter, subglobose with a long pedicel, finely warted; brown. Habitat in grass, pastureland, and on golf courses; late summer to autumn, persisting in old, dried condition for many months. Common. Edible when young.