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Common earthball

Scleroderma citrinum · Earthballs (Scleroderma)

Poisonous
Common earthball
📷 Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Poisonous. Was once mixed into truffles – truffles grow underground and look different inside.

Recognise it safely – what matters

  1. Cut it open: dark inside, marbled violet-black
  2. Thick, hard, cracked skin
  3. No stem

Features

Cap
Tuber-shaped, 3–10 cm, yellowish ochre with a coarsely cracked, warty surface; thick, hard skin (2–4 mm).
Underside
No gills or tubes.
Stem
No stem, only a root-like base.
Flesh
Violet-black with white marbling even when young – never pure white.
Smell
Metallic, gassy
Spore print
Black-brown

Season

Habitat

Acidic, sandy soils in forests, heaths and on path edges, often half buried.

Chêne, Bouleau, Pin, Hêtre

Risk of confusion

Vesse-de-loup géante Edible species Giant puffballs are pure white inside when young, like mozzarella, have a thin skin and grow much larger. Truffe Edible species Truffles grow underground, their inside is veined light and dark, not violet-black.

If someone has eaten it

Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, circulatory problems. First symptoms: usually after 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Act immediately – even without symptoms:

  • Emergency number 112 if someone feels unwell.
  • Poison centre: Germany – area code of the nearest city with a poison centre + 19240 (e.g. Berlin 030 19240, Munich 089 19240) · Austria +43 1 406 43 43 · Switzerland 145.
  • Keep leftovers, trimmings or vomit – it helps with identification.

Never identify mushrooms by pictures or an app alone. When in doubt, ask a mushroom expert – and only pick what you know for sure.

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