Common Puffball

Common Puffballs (Lycoperdon perlatum)

Puff

The common Puff Ball (Lycoperdon perlatum), edible when young and still solid white throughout, and weirdly alien in appearance. And even weirder, researchers suggest that extracts from this fungus have anti-fungal properties; what's that about!  They say that the button form of the common Puff Ball can be confused with the button form of the deadly Amanita species. You really don't want to make that mistake. So firstly, always know what you're picking, never collect anything you're not certain of and secondly, slice them through, they should be solid, no internal or undeveloped gills.