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Story: Fungi

Giant puffball

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Giant puffball

Giant puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) occasionally turn up on farmland. The largest can grow to over 1 metre in diameter, but usually they are a similar size and shape to a football. When young and white inside, they are edible. As they age the outer skin turns yellow and the interior turns into a mass of brown spore dust. The spores are dispersed by the wind when the skin decays.

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Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua

by Ross Beever

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How to cite this page

Peter Buchanan, Fungi – Saprobes: decomposers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/11574/giant-puffball (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Peter Buchanan, published 1 March 2009.