Calvatia fumosa is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of puffball

Puffball

A puffball is a member of any of several groups of fungus in the division Basidiomycota. The puffballs were previously treated as a taxonomic group called the Gasteromycetes or Gasteromycetidae, but they are now known to be a polyphyletic assemblage. The distinguishing feature of all puffballs is...

 in the Lycoperdaceae

Lycoperdaceae

Lycoperdaceae is a family of approximately 150 fungi now known to lie in the Agaricales. Historically they were placed in their own order Lycoperdales. Members of the Lycoperdaceae family are known as the true puffballs. Unlike other types of fungi that hold spores in gills or teeth, puffballs...

 family.

Description

The fruiting body is anywhere from golf ball size to baseball size, round to oval, 3-8 centimeters broad, thick, at first smooth and white, soon becomes grayish to brownish. The spores are firm and white at first, then yellowish or olive, and then dark brown and powdery. The species has an unpleasant smell. The species edibility is unknown.

Distribution and habitat

The species is solitary, grouped, or in small clusters on soil in spruce-fir forests in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

and westward in the summer and fall.