puffball

n. any fungus with a spherical spore case

A puffball is a member of any of a number of groups of fungus in the division Basidiomycota. The puffballs were previously treated as a taxonomic group called the Gasteromycetes or Gasteromycetidae, but they are now known to be a polyphyletic assemblage. Their distinguishing feature is that they have gasterothecia (gasteroid basidiocarps) in which the spores are produced internally; that is, the basidiocarp remains closed, or opens only after the spores have been released from the basidia. The spores of puffballs are statismospores rather than ballistospores, meaning they are not actively shot off the basidium. They are called puffballs because a cloud of brown dust-like spores is emitted when the mature fruiting body bursts. Puffballs and similar forms are thought to have evolved repeatedly (that is, in numerous independent events) from hymenomycetes by gasteromycetation, through secotioid stages. Thus Gasteromycetes or Gasteromycetidae are now considered descriptive terms (more properly gasteroid or gasteromycetes) and not valid cladistic terms.
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Noun
1. any of various fungi of the family Lycoperdaceae whose round fruiting body discharges a cloud of spores when mature
(synonym) true puffball
(hypernym) fungus
(hyponym) giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea
(member-holonym) Lycoperdaceae, family Lycoperdaceae
2. any of various fungi of the genus Scleroderma having hard-skinned subterranean fruiting bodies resembling truffles
(synonym) earthball, false truffle, hard-skinned puffball
(hypernym) fungus
(hyponym) Scleroderma citrinum, Scleroderma aurantium
(member-holonym) Scleroderma, genus Scleroderma

(n.)
A kind of ball-shaped fungus (Lycoperdon giganteum, and other species of the same genus) full of dustlike spores when ripe; -- called also bullfist, bullfice, puckfist, puff, and puffin.
  

Synonyms and related words:
algae, autophyte, bean, bracken, brown algae, climber, conferva, confervoid, creeper, diatom, fern, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, grapevine, green algae, gulfweed, herb, heterophyte, ivy, kelp, legume, lentil, liana, lichen, liverwort, mold, moss, mushroom, parasite, parasitic plant, pea, perthophyte, phytoplankton, planktonic algae, plant families, pulse, red algae, rockweed, rust, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, smut, succulent, toadstool, vetch, vine, wort, wrack