Lycoperdon

Lycoperdon
Lycoperdon pyriforme
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Agaricaceae
Genus:	Lycoperdon
Type species
Lycoperdon perlatum Pers.

Lycoperdon is a genus of puffball mushrooms. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains about 50 species. In general, it contains the smaller species such as the pear shaped puffball and the gem studded puffball. Most of the time they grow from dead wood and if they grow through the ground they usually indicate that wood is buried. It was formerly classified within the now-obsolete order Lycoperdales, as the type genus which, following a restructuring of fungal taxonomy brought about by molecular phylogeny, has been split. Lycoperdon is now placed in the family Agaricaceae of the order Agaricales.

The name comes from lycos meaning wolf and perdon meaning to break wind; thus the name literally means wolf-farts.

Species

• Lycoperdon caudatum (Syn. Lycoperdon pedicellatum) J.Schröt.
• Lycoperdon curtisii
• Lycoperdon echinatum Pers.
• Lycoperdon ericaceum (Syn. Lycoperdon muscorum)
• Lycoperdon ericaceum, var. subareolatum
• Lycoperdon lambinonii Demoulin 1972
• Lycoperdon lividum (Syn. Lycoperdon spadiceum) Pers. 1809
• Lycoperdon mammiforme Pers. 1801
• Lycoperdon marginatum (Syn. Lycoperdon candidum) Vittadini
• Lycoperdon molle
• Lycoperdon nigrescens (Syn. Lycoperdon foetidum) Bonord
• Lycoperdon norvegicum Demoulin 1971
• Lycoperdon ovoidisporum
• Lycoperdon perlatum (Syn. Lycoperdon gemmatum)
• Lycoperdon pyriforme Schaeff. ex Pers. (now Morganella pyriformis)
• Lycoperdon pulcherrimum Berk. & M.A. Curtis
• Lycoperdon umbrinum

External links

• Puffballs and their allies in Michigan by Alexander H. Smith, 1951. (Full text of monograph.)