Pisolithus marmoratus

Description:

A large (90mm wide) puffball type mushroom on a very shaggy looking stipe (120mm tall and 50mm thick). The exopiridiole looks to have mostly flaked off and some shards were still lying on the ground. The stain of the pale brown spores had stuck to the tree nearby but the endoperidiole was still full of 'dusty' spore material. This looks like it must have been two together and one ball is well broken down. (right side)

Habitat:

Open dry eucalyptus with grassy understory (This was on a very wide highway median strip which was planted approx. 15 years earlier.)

Notes:

A candidate for ugliest fungus of the year.