These are popping up on our property in Eastern Oregon.
I think it’s a sourdough
OP is there a way to get a picture of the bottom side? Hard to tell if that’s a puffball or a larger mushroom that’s still immature. At this stage I would even throw out Hawk’s Wing as a possibility.
Yeah that’s looking more like a puffball to me, however I’ve never had experience with them so I will defer to others on this one. Save it though, it might still be something you can use and some mushrooms can last for up to a week in the fridge (but maybe put it in a paper bag – if it IS a puffball you don’t want it exploding spores everywhere).
Oh, just for future reference, when you are dealing with look-alike mushrooms one of the first things you want to check is for gills under the cap (although I don’t think you’ll ever see them of puffballs?). The type and color of gills are very important in identification, so take as close-up a shot as you can, then a bit further away to get the underside of the cap. Along with your images of the top of the cap, and view of the stem, that will nearly always help to positively identify a mushroom. Unfortunately some are so close that the only way to be sure is to get a spore print and see what color the spores are. I have one growing in my yard where white or yellow spore prints are delicious, but green is deadly. Mine are delicious. :-)
With puffballs, the definitive way to know what they are for sure is to slice them in half. If they’re white all the way through, it’s a puffball. If there’s anything else inside, it’s probably a young version of something with a stem that you shouldn’t eat.
Puffballs that are past their prime to eat sometimes brown on the inside too, so if there’s any discoloration, don’t fuck with it.
I sacrificed one. I can go back out and cut it open if that would help. There are more out there that I left undisturbed.
So the funniest thing… After saying yesterday I had never seen a puffball growing in my area, I was over mowing mom’s yard today and found a puffball growing in her yard! Not quite as big as yours, mine is a little under 3" across, but I brought it home to try and ID it.
