Bovista nigrescens Pers. ex Pers.
Schwarzer Bovist, Boviste noirâtre, Brown Puffball Fruit body 3–6cm across, subglobose, slightly pointed below, without a sterile base but attached to the substrate by a single mycelial cord which often breaks leaving the fruit body free to roll about in the wind, outer wall white at first, flaking off in large scales at maturity to expose the dark purple-brown to blackish inner wall enclosing the spore mass and opening by a large irregular pore or extensive splitting and cracking. Gleba dark purple-brown. Capillitium of highly branched brown dendroid elements. Spores brown, subglobose with a long pedicel and finely warted, 4.5–6µ diameter. Habitat in grass and pastureland. Season late summer to autumn but persisting in old dried condition for many months. Uncommon – more frequent in the North and West. Edible when young. Found In Europe.