Abstract
Globose to clavate base-ball sized, pear shaped, fruiting bodies were found under the Himalayan cedar, Cedrus deodora at less fertile and poor sandy poor soil in the campus of Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, Korea. The fruiting body was at first, round to club-shaped, usually with a narrow, rooting base with yellowish rhizomorphs attached to it and lack a volva and a sterile base. The peridium of fruiting body was tough and crusty. The peridioles were white pea-like capsules in a blackish matrix. The color change to darker tints of brown at the top of the exterior peridium reflected the gradual ripening of the interior gleba and peridioles, which proceeded from the top downward to become a mass of spore dust, appearing as cinnamon brown at the apex of the vertical section. At around this stage, the peridium cracked open linearly, exposing the gleba with powdery spores mass released from overmatured peridioles. Spores were more or less round, warty or spiny, 10 to $12{\mu}m$; globose, cinnamon brown in powdery mass, with spines up to $2{\mu}m$ long. The thin peridium ruptured further in response to the disintegration of the peridioles, releasing the powdery spores, which proceeded until whole fruiting body disappeared leaving the dry spore dust coats in the vicinity. The absence of a capillitium is a distinctive characteristic that distinguishes the specimen from other puff-ball fungi and from most of earthballs. Based on the above characteristics, the specimen was identified as Poslithus tinctorius.