Nyctalis asterophora
aka
Asterophora lycoperdoides
Grafton MA
7/26/08
This is the one that had a 1" cap.
Since Noah S. suggested getting spores from the
top of the cap, this should be the color of the spore print. According to
Mushrooms of Northeast North America (pg 71) the spores are very small elliptic
to oval and smooth. The spore print should be white. This mushroom
produces spores in 2 flavors, regular and heavy duty. In this case it was
heavy duty!
This is my first time seeing chlamydospores . I measured one of the larger
chlamydospores, in the longest
dimension, and got 19.6 microns. They look like a work of art. A
chlamydospore is the thick-walled large resting spore. It is the life-stage
which survives in unfavorable conditions, such as dry or hot seasons.