Scleroderma meridionale

Scleroderma meridionale is a puffball-like fungus in the family Sclerodermataceae. The fungus produces roughly circular to irregularly shaped fruit bodies up to 6 cm (2.4 in) in diameter, characterised by a thick, yellow to tan peridium that splits into lobes when mature to reveal a dark brownish-grey spore mass inside. It typically grows in sandy, dry soils throughout the Mediterranean basin and parts of North America, where it forms beneficial relationships with various woody plants including pines, oaks and shrubs of the family Cistaceae....read more on Wikipedia.