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''Lycoperdon echinatum'', commonly known as the spiny puffball or the spring puffball, is a type of puffball mushroom in the genus ''Lycoperdon''. The saprobic species has been found in Africa, Europe, Central America, and North America, where it grows on soil in deciduous woods, glades, and pastures. It has been proposed that North American specimens be considered a separate species, ''Lycoperdon americanum'', but this suggestion has not been followed by most authors. Molecular analysis indicates that ''L. echinatum'' is closely related to the puffball genus ''Handkea''. The fruit bodies of ''L. echinatum'' are wide by tall, supported by a small base, and densely covered with spines that are up to long. The spines can fall off in maturity, leaving a net-like pattern of scars on the underlying surface. Initially white in color, the puffballs turn a dark brown as they mature, at the same time changing from nearly round to somewhat flattened. Young specimens of ''L. echinatum'' resemble another edible spiny puffball, ''Lycoperdon pulcherrimum'', but the latter species does not turn brown as it ages. The fruit bodies are edible when young, when the interior is white and firm and before it has turned into a powdery brown mass of spores. Laboratory tests have shown that extracts of the fruit bodies can inhibit the growth of several bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. ==Taxonomy and phylogeny== The species was first described by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1797.〔 It was later reduced to a variety of ''Lycoperdon gemmatum'' (as ''L. gemmatum'' var. ''echinatum''; ''L. gemmatum'' is now known as ''Lycoperdon perlatum''〔) by Elias Magnus Fries,〔 but American mycologist Charles Horton Peck, who extensively studied the North American distribution of the genus, raised it again to species level in 1879. He thought it worthy of status as a species distinct from ''L. gemmatum'' because of the different character of its warts, its much spinier appearance, and the smoother surface of the peridium underneath the spines.〔 Miles Joseph Berkeley and Christopher Edmund Broome wrote of the fungus in 1871, but believed their specimen, collected from Reading, Berkshire, by Hoyle, represented a new species, which they called ''Lycoperdon Hoylei''. They wrote that their specimen agreed "exactly with an authentic specimen of Persoon's ''L. echinatum'' externally, who could, however, scarcely have overlooked the lilac spores."〔 Despite the apparent difference in spore color, ''L. Hoylei'' is currently considered synonymous with ''L. echinatum''.〔 ''Utraria echinata'', named by Lucien Quélet in 1873,〔 is another synonym for ''L. echinatum''.〔 In 1972, Vincent Demoulin described the species ''Lycoperdon americanum'' on the basis of a specimen found in North Carolina.〔 Although he believed it to be a unique species,〔 several authors consider it synonymous with ''L. echinatum''.〔〔〔〔 Phylogenetic analysis of the sequence and secondary structure of the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes coding for the internal transcribed spacer units suggests that ''Lycoperdon echinatum'' forms a clade with the puffball genus ''Handkea'', separate from the type species of ''Lycoperdon'', ''Lycoperdon perlatum''.〔 In previous analyses that used only the rRNA sequences for phylogenetic comparison, ''L. echinatum'' formed a clade with ''L. mammiforme'', ''L. foetidum'', and ''Bovistella radicata'' (now known as ''Lycoperdon radicatum''〔), but separate from ''L. pyriforme''.〔〔 The species is commonly known as the "spiny puffball"〔 or the "spring puffball";〔 Peck referred to the species as the "echinate puff-ball".〔 The specific epithet ''echinatum'' is derived from the Greek word ''echinos'' (εχινος) meaning "hedgehog" or "sea-urchin".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lycoperdon echinatum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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