Skip to main content

Kōrero: Fungi

Giant puffball

Image
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.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua

by Ross Beever

© Copyright image. All rights reserved. Permission from Manaaki Whenua: Landcare Research New Zealand Limited must be obtained before the re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

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

He kōrero nā Peter Buchanan, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.