Lycoperdon pyriforme Schaeff. ex Pers. Birnenstäubling Vesse-de-loup en poire, Stump Puffball. Fruit body 1.5–4cm across, 3.5cm high, subglobose to club-shaped, attached to the substrate by mycelial strands, whitish at first finally yellowish- or greyish-brown, outer layer of scurfy spines, warts, or granules, inner wall becoming smooth and papery, opening by an apical pore. Gleba olive-brown; sterile base occupying the stem spongy, but the cavities forming rather small cells. Spores olive-brown, globose, smooth, 3–4um in diameter. Capillitium distinctive in being formed of brownish branched threads which lack all trace of tiny hyaline pores, all other members of the genus have poroid capillitial threads. Habitat in groups or swarms on rotten logs or stumps, often appearing to grow in soil but in reality attached to buried wood by the characteristic white mycelial cords. Season summer to late autumn. Common. Edible when young. Distribution, America and Europe.