Bovista pila

Bovista pila, commonly known as the tumbling puffball, is a species of puffball fungus in the family Lycoperdaceae.

The puffballs are initially attached to the ground by a small cord that readily breaks off, leaving the mature puffball to be blown about. The egg-shaped to spherical puffball of B. pila measures up to 8 cm (3 in) in diameter. Its white outer skin flakes off in age to reveal a shiny, bronze-colored inner skin that encloses a spore sac. The spores are more or less spherical, with short tube-like extensions. B. pila closely resembles the European B. nigrescens, from which it can be reliably distinguished only by microscopic characteristics.

A temperate species, B. pila is widely distributed in North America, where it grows on the ground on road sides, in pastures, grassy areas, and open woods. There are few well-documented occurrences outside of North America. Young B. pila puffballs are edible while their internal tissue is still white and firm. They have been used as a charm by the Chippewa people of North America, and as an ethnoveterinary medicine for livestock farming in western Canada.