Pepper Pot

Description

The Pepper Pot is an unusual fungus whose fruiting body resembles an earthstar. The young fruiting body is round and hidden in soil or litter; its outer coat then splits into from several to a dozen or so rays, which bend downwards and lift the centre above the ground. The expanded fruiting body is usually a few centimetres across and ochre-grey to brown. In the middle sits a grey-brown, spherical spore sac, supported by many short columns and studded with numerous small holes, like a pepper shaker or a sieve.

It grows on the ground, on well-drained, often sandy or calcareous soils, in pine, spruce, deciduous and riverside forests and in thermophilous scrub. Fruiting bodies appear from September to November. In Poland it is very rare, only a few current localities are known, and it is under strict species protection.

It is easily told from earthstars by the many small holes in the spore sac (instead of a single one at the top) and by the many column-like stalks. If you find this fungus, do not pick or damage it; take a photo and report the locality to mycologists.

Identification features

Cap

A gasteroid species, with no cap in the strict sense. The fruiting body develops underground or within the litter layer, attached at the base by a mycelial cord; when young it is round. The exoperidium (three-layered: an outer mycelial layer, a middle fibrous layer and an inner pseudoparenchymatous layer) splits into 5–14 uneven rays (descriptions give different ranges), bends them downwards and lifts the fruiting body above the ground. The expanded fruiting body is 2–12 cm across from tip to tip of the rays and ochre-grey to ochre-brown; the inner surface of the rays is at first pale beige, then turns yellow or brown and often cracks and flakes. The spore sac (endoperidium) is almost spherical, 1–5 cm across, grey-brown, finely roughened by low (under 0.1 mm), slightly connected warts.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

No tubes or gills. Spores develop inside the sac (gleba), which opens through numerous (from a few to about 30) small, roundish pores with fringed margins, located mainly in the upper half of the endoperidium. The gleba is brown to grey-brown, with a cottony texture. The columellae begin at the base of the gleba and end inside it, without connecting to the pores.

Stem

No typical stem. The endoperidium is supported by a group of 8–31 short, column-like, flattened-spherical stalks; the base of the fruiting body is concave or domed, often caked with soil.

Flesh

The mature fruiting body contains powdery gleba, not flesh. The taste is indistinct; dried specimens smell like curry powder or bouillon cubes. It should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print brown. Spores roundish, non-amyloid, without a germ pore, angularly ornamented (projections up to 1.6–2 µm); diameter about 4–8 µm (descriptions give different ranges, the higher values include the ornamentation).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A terrestrial saprotroph, decomposing organic matter. Fruiting bodies grow in groups on well-drained, often sandy or calcareous soil, usually in the partial shade of trees; it prefers south-facing slopes. In riparian forests it also grows on heavier soils.

Distribution. The range covers the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere; earlier reports from other continents probably concerned related species. In Europe it is rare, more frequent in the south, and is on the red lists of at least 12 countries (including Austria, Belgium, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the Czech Republic); in Switzerland it is considered extinct, and in Great Britain it was rediscovered in 2006. Habitats: pine and spruce forests, deciduous woods, riverside willow–poplar forests, thermophilous scrub, hedgerows, roadsides and pastures. In Poland it is very rare: by 2020, 8 historical localities, 5 current ones and one doubtful were reported. It is under strict protection in Poland (Dz.U. 2014 item 1408); on the Red List it has status E (endangered).

Fruiting. In Europe from September to November.

What can it be confused with?

• Geastrum spp. (earthstars) — Earthstars have a single pore at the top of the spore sac, which sits on a single short stalk or directly on the base; the Pepper Pot has many pores and numerous column-like stalks.
• Myriostoma calongei — A species from New Mexico (North America); it has a more distinctly warty endoperidium, with warts more than 0.1 mm high.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The first concise description of this fungus dates from 1696, from John Ray's Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum, in an edition supplemented by Samuel Doody, who compared it to a colander with a star-shaped sheath.
• The English name "pepper pot" (a pepper shaker) and the old name "Cullenden puff-ball" refer to the sieve-like openings in the spore sac.
• The spores are expelled in small puffs when raindrops hit the wall of the sac; the compressed cottony gleba pushes them out through the pores.
• In 2004 it was one of 33 fungus species proposed by the European Council for the Conservation of Fungi for inclusion in the Bern Convention.