Lycoperdon pusillum. Pr.
The Small Lycoperdon. Edible.
Pusillum means small.
Peridium is one-fourth to one inch broad, globose, scattered or cespitose, sessile, radicating, with but little cellular tissue at the base, white, or whitish, brownish when old, rimose-squamulose or slightly roughened with minute floccose or furfuraceous persistent warts; capillitium and spores greenish-yellow, then dingy olivaceous. Spores smooth 4µ in diameter. Peck.
These are found from June to cool weather in the fall, in pastures where the grass is eaten short. When mature they dehisce by a small opening, and when broken open will disclose the olive or greenish-yellow capillitium. The spores are of the same color, smooth and round.
Lycoperdon acuminatum. Bosc.
The Pointed Lycoperdon. Edible.
Acuminatum means pointed.
The peridium is small, round, then egg-shaped; with a plentiful mass of mycelium in the moss in which the plants seem to delight. The plant is white and the outer rind is soft and delicate. There is no subgleba; the spores and capillitium are pale-greenish-yellow, then a dirty gray. The threads are simple, transparent, much thicker than the spores. The spores are round, smooth, 3µ in diameter.
I have found the plants frequently about Chillicothe on damp, moss-covered logs and sometimes at the base of beech trees, when covered with moss. They are very small, not exceeding one-half inch in diameter. The small ovoid form, with the white, soft, delicate cortex, will serve to distinguish the species. Found from September to October.