Podaxis pistillaris (L. :Pers.)Fr. Syst. Mycol. 3: 63 (1829)

Image © Ian R. McCann Reproduced by permission Common Name:

Podaxis pistillaris is a very distinctive relative of the puffballs. It occurs in deserts and semi-deserts of Australia and other countries. It grows to 15 cm high and has a hard, woody stem. The large cap, which protects the blackish spore-bearing tissue, splits and usually falls away at maturity, allowing the spores to be dispersed by wind. Large numbers may appear after soaking rains. Field Guide to Australian Fungi B.A. Fuhrer Reprinted by permission.

• Gasterocarp
  up to 15 cm in height
• Peridium
  up to 8 cm tall and 3 cm in diameter, subconical with an acute to rounded apex. Exoperidium smooth to scaly, generally flaking to reveal the endoperidium.
• Endoperidium
  usually dark brown in mature specimens, lacerate, dehiscing from the lower edge and eventually exposing the gleba.
• Stipe
  Straight, up to 1 cm in diameter, pale to brown, bulbous at the base, narrowing to the apex.
• Gleba
  deep brown to black at maturity
• Capillitium
  pale yellow-brown to black in quantities, mostly deep red under the microscope, threads up to 10 µm in diameter with walls occasionally spirally thickened, rarely branched or septate.
• Spores
  10-14 (-16) x (8-) 9-12 µm broadly oval to sub-globose, smooth, yellow to deep reddish-brown with double wall, truncate base and apical pore. Older spore measurements have varied considerably. Species from Australian collections appear to be more subglobose than those seen from the United States, raising the possiblity that the latter are not the same species.

  Information derived from Priest, M.J., and Lenz, M. (1999) The genus Podaxis (Gastermoycetes) in Australia with a description of a new species from termite mounds. Australian Systematic Botany 12: 109-116.

Distribution map

Last modified on 28 May 2001

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