Calbovista
| Calbovista | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Lycoperdaceae (or Agaricaceae) |
| Genus: |
Calbovista Morse ex M.T.Seidl (1995) |
| Type species | |
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Calbovista subsculpta Morse ex M.T.Seidl (1995) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Calbovista is a fungal genus containing the single species Calbovista subsculpta, commonly known as the sculptured puffball, sculptured giant puffball, and warted giant puffball. It is a common puffball of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast ranges of western North America. The puffball is more or less round with a diameter of up to 15 cm (6 in), white becoming brownish in age, and covered with shallow pyramid-shaped plates or scales. It fruits singly or in groups along roads and in open woods at high elevations, from summer to autumn.
Although the puffball was originally described as new to science by Elizabeth Eaton Morse in 1935, it was not published validly until 60 years later. The species is named for its resemblance to Calvatia sculpta, from which it can be usually distinguished in the field by its less prominent pyramidal warts, and microscopically by the antler-like branches of its capillitium (thread-like material among the spores). Calbovista subsculpta is a good edible species while its interior flesh (the gleba) is still firm and white. As the puffball matures, its insides become dark brown and powdery from mature spores.
In her 1935 Mycologia article, American mycologist Elizabeth Eaton Morse noted the existence of an abundant and widely distributed puffball of the western United States that was commonly misidentified as Calvatia sculpta, although it differed from that species in having extensively branched capillitial threads. The puffball had characteristics that aligned it with several other taxa. The peridium was similar to those of Calvatia sculpta, Calvatia caelata (now known as Calvatia bovista), Scleroderma flavidum, and Scleroderma aurantium (now Scleroderma citrinum); the rooting base was similar to Bovistella; and the structure of the capillitial threads reminiscent of Bovista, Bovistella, and Mycenastrum. However, the new species had a unique combination of characteristics and did not fit neatly into any already-described genera. As a result, Morse circumscribed the new genus Calbovista to contain Calbovista sculpta. The type collection was made at Soda Springs, California in May 1934 at an elevation of 6,767 ft (2,063 m). Morse's publication of the genus was invalid because it lacked a description in Latin—a requirement of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature that was implemented effective January 1, 1935. The genus and species were published validly with a Latin description by Michelle Seidl in 1995.
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