NOTES ON THE CYTOLOGY AND SEXUALITY OF PUFFBALLS

Abstract

In stained squash preparations of young puffballs, the subterminal cells are binucleate. Prophase I of young basidia is too indistinct for details, but metaphase and anaphase I reveal the chromosomes and suggest that their number is n = 3 in Lycoperdon pusillum and Calvatia gigantea, and n = 4 in L. pyriforme and L. curtisii. Each mature basidium contains a tetrad. The basidiospore contains two (sister) nuclei. Hyphae of the species investigated are smooth, lacking clamp connections. Their cells are usually binucleate, but the nuclei are not closely associated in pairs. Such species may be haploid. In a variant of C. gigantea the tissue is made up of much larger hyphae, possessing clamp connections and each cell containing a pair of very large nuclei. The variant is therefore diploid. More of such tissue should be sought.