Scleroderma (sect. Scleroderma) sect. Scleroderma

(1) Scleroderma sect. Scleroderma ≡ Scleroderma sect. Aculeatispora Guzmán, Ciencia (México) 25: 198 (1967) Type species:— Scleroderma verrucosum (Bull.) Pers., Synopsis Methodica Fungorum (Göttingen) 1: 154 (1801) Description:— Basidiomata usually small, less than 50 mm in diameter, sessile to stipitate, subglobose to tuberiform. Peridium usually leathery, less than 1 mm in thickness, turning reddish, purplish to brownish after damaged, with thin, flaky squamules. Gleba usually compact at first, becoming pulverulent. Basal rhizomorphs usually moderately abundant to abundant, whitish. Basidiospores usually globose, thick-walled, with echinulate to subreticulate ornamentation, brownish to purplish. Basidia usually clavate. Gleba trama usually composed of nearly colorless hyphae. Clamp connections usually absent. Notes:— Most of those Scleroderma species having been known as poisonous are currently recognized in this section (Figs. 1 & 2; see section Discussion for details).