Common Puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum in Nymans Wood, West Sussex, England last weekend.

Puffballs are common at the moment.  They are in my garden in the debris from 20 years of piled up composting branches and garden waste; in the mulch by the car park at Wakehurst Place; and here in Nymans Woods under hazel, beech, oak and chestnut trees.

They look like Common Puffballs,  Lycoperdon perlatum, which figures as they are common enough.

It took a couple of attempts to capture the image above.  And days later I found that my lens and lens hood were covered in the brown spores!










Looking in detail at the arrangement of the puffballs they did seem to fulfill the criteria of a fairy ring suggesting that the mycelium originated from a central point.