Bovista

Bovista is a genus of fungi commonly known as the true puffballs. It was formerly classified within the now-obsolete order Lycoperdales, which, following a restructuring of fungal taxonomy brought about by molecular phylogeny, has been split; the species of Bovista are now placed in the family Agaricaceae of the order Agaricales. Bovista species have a collectively widespread distribution, and are found largely in temperate regions of the world. Various species have historically been used in homeopathic preparations.
Description
Fruit bodies are oval to spherical to pear-shaped, and typically in diameter with a white or light-colored thin and fragile exoperidium (outer layer of the peridium). Depending on the species, the exoperidium in a young specimen may be smooth, granular, or finely echinulate. This exoperidium sloughs off at maturity to expose a smooth endoperidium with a single apical pore (ostiole). The fruit bodies may be attached to the ground by fine rhizomorphs that may appear like a small cord. Some species develop a subgleba—a sterile base that is typically not well developed. The fruit bodies of mature specimens can develop surface alterations such as scales, plates, areolae, or verrucae. At the microscopic level, these features are made of hyphae, sphaerocysts (rounded cells), claviform (club-shaped) cells. Bovista sclerocystis is the only species in the genus with mycosclereids (setoid elements) in the peridium.
Spores are brown to purple-brown, roughly spherical or ellipsoid in shape, and 3.5–7 μm in diameter. A short or long pedicel (stalk) may be present. At maturity, the entire fruit body may become detached from the ground, and the spores spread as the puffball is blown around like a tumbleweed.
In Bovista, the capillitium (a network of thread-like cells in which the spores are embedded) is not connected directly to the interior wall of the peridium. Instead, it is made of separate, irregularly branched units that end in tapered points. This type of capillitium, also present in the puffball genera Calbovista and Bovistella, has been called the "Bovista" type by Hanns Kreisel, who published a monograph on Bovista in 1967. Kreisel also defined the "Lycoperdon"-type (a capillitium comprising long, threads with occasional dichotomous or irregular branches), and the "intermediate" type (a transitional form between the Bovista type and Lycoperdon type, featuring threads that may be pored, with several thick main stems connected by multiple branches). All three types of capillitia structure are found in Bovista. "Bovista"-type capillitia are elastic, a feature shared with the gasteroid genera Lycoperdon and Geastrum. The flexibility of the capillitium gives the gleba a cottony texture that persists even after the exoperidium has been sloughed off.
Systematics
The genus was originally described by mycologist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1794. He described the genus as "Cortice exteriore libero evanefcente, pileo acauli demum glaberrimo, vertice irregulariter rupto" ("Exterior cortex vanishes, cap stemless becoming smooth, irregularly breaking the top"). Synonyms include Piesmycus (Rafinesque 1808), Piemycus (Rafinesque 1813), Sackea (Rostkovius 1844), Globaria (Quélet 1873), and Pseudolycoperdon (Velenovský 1947). Bovista plumbea is the type species.
Kreisel, in his 1967 monograph, proposed two subgenera based on the type of capillitium. Subgenus Globaria has species of the Lycoperdon type, while subgenus Bovista is represented by the Bovista-type or intermediate capillitium. Further divisions into sections and series is based on the capillitium type, the absence or presence of pores in the capillitia, and the presence or absence of a subgleba (a sterile base). Phylogenetic analysis has shown that Bovista, as defined by Kreisel, is monophyletic. Also, Bovista may be split into two clades, Bovista and Globaris, that roughly correspond to the subgeneric divisions suggested by Kreisel.
Edibility
Puffballs of the genus Bovista are generally edible when young and white inside, but caution must be taken to prevent confusion with immature, and potentially deadly Amanitas. This is done by cutting fruit bodies longitudinally to ensure that they are white throughout, and do not have internal structures within.
Related genera
Bovistina is a related but separate genus that was created to describe species with the external features of a puffball, but with the glebal characters of a Geaster. Bovistella is another similar genus, it may be distinguished from Bovista by its ample sterile base.
Use in homeopathy
Reference to the genus has appeared in several 19th-century textbooks on homeopathy. Richard Hughes wrote in A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1870) "Bovista is said to be indicated, and to have proved curative in head affections characterised by a sensation as if the head were enormously increased in size". In Lectures on Clinical Materia Medica (1887), E. A. Farrington claims that Bovista spores restrict blood circulation through the capillaries, and suggests uses associated with menstrual irregularity, or trauma. He also mentions that Bovista produces some symptoms of suffocation, and might be useful in remedying asphyxiation resulting from inhalation of charcoal fumes. Even more ailments have been suggested to be improved with use of Bovista, such as "awkwardness in speech and action", "stuttering or stammering children", "palpitation after a meal", diabetes mellitus, ovarian cysts, and "acne due to cosmetics".
Species
The Dictionary of the Fungi (10th edition, 2008) estimates there are 55 Bovista species worldwide. Index Fungorum lists 92 species that it considers to be valid.
Bovista acocksii
reported in South Africa
Bovista acuminata
Bovista aenea
Bovista aestivalis – California
Bovista africana
Bovista albosquamosa
Bovista apedicellata
Bovista amethystina
Bovista antarctica
Bovista arachnoides
Bovista ardosiaca
Bovista aspara
Bovista betpakdalinica
Bovista bovistoides
Bovista brunnea
Bovista cacao
Bovista californica
Bovista capensis
Bovista cisneroi
Bovista citrina
Bovista colorata
Bovista concinna
Bovista coprophila
Bovista cretacea
Bovista cunninghamii
Bovista dakotensis
Bovista dealbata
Bovista dermoxantha
reported causing fairy rings in Chiba City (Japan)
Bovista dominicensis
Bovista dryina
Bovista dubiosa
Bovista elegans
Bovista flaccida
Bovista flavobrunnea
Bovista fuegiana
reported from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Bovista gunnii
Bovista fulva
Bovista fusca
Bovista glacialis
Bovista glaucocinerea
Bovista grandipora
Bovista graveolens
Bovista grisea
Bovista gunnii
Bovista halophila
Bovista herrerae
Bovista heterocapilla
Bovista himalaica
Bovista hungarica
Bovista incarnata
Bovista jonesii
Bovista kazachstanica
Bovista kurczumensis
Bovista kurgaldzhinica
Bovista lauterbachii
Bovista leonoviana
Bovista leucoderma
Bovista limosa
Originally collected in Iceland
Bovista longicauda
Bovista longispora
Bovista longissima
Bovista lycoperdoides
Bovista macrospora
Bovista magellanica
Bovista minor
Bovista membranacea
Bovista monticola
Bovista nigra
Bovista nigrescens – Brown puffball, black bovist
Bovista oblongispora
Bovista ochrotricha
Bovista paludosa – Fen puffball
Bovista perpusilla
Bovista pila – Tumbling puffball
Bovista plumbea – Paltry Puffball, grey puffball
Bovista polymorpha
Bovista promontorii
Bovista pulyuggeodes
Bovista pusilla – Dwarf puffball
Bovista pusilloformis
found in Finland
Bovista radicata
Bovista reunionis
Bovista ruizii
Bovista schwarzmanniana
Bovista sclerocystis
reported from Mexico
Bovista sempervirentium
Bovista septima
Bovista singeri
reported from Nor Yungas, Bolivia
Bovista spinulosa
Bovista sublaevispora
reported form Viña del Mar, Chile
Bovista substerilis
Bovista sulphurea
Bovista termitum
Bovista tomentosa
Bovista trachyspora
Bovista umbrina
Bovista uruguayensis
Bovista vascelloides
reported from Nepal
Bovista vassjaginiana
Bovista verrucosa
Bovista yasudae
Bovista zeyheri
See also
List of Agaricaceae genera
List of Agaricales genera
References
External links
California Fungi
Trial field key to the LYCOPERDACEAE & GEASTRACEAE in the Pacific Northwest
The Gasteromycetes of the Eastern United States and Canada, pp. 97—100
Agaricaceae
Edible fungi
Agaricales genera
Puffballs
Taxa named by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon