Largest puffball

The largest species of puffball is the giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea), native to temperate areas worldwide. Its basidiocarp (this species' spheroid body inside which its spores develop) can attain a diameter of 1.5 m (5 ft) and weigh over 20 kg (44 lb). The basidiocarp develops during late summer and autumn, and occurs in fields, meadows and deciduous forests.

Puffballs are characterized by possessing a specialized basidiocarp known as a gasterothecium, which is unstalked and spheroid in shape, and inside which its spores develop, eventually forming a central mass called a gleba. Whereas the spores of most basidiomycetes are actively shot out from the basidiocarp, those of puffballs merely fall out of the mushroom when it splits or bursts.

The largest ever documented specimen of giant puffball measured 2.64 m (8 ft 8 in) in circumference and weighed 22 kg (48 lb 8 oz). It was found by Jean-Guy Richard of Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1987.