The species was first described in 1885 by American mycologist Harvey Willson Harkness , under the name '' Lycoperdon sculptum '' . Harkness , who called it " a curious and strikingly beautiful species " , found fruit bodies growing at elevations between in the Sierra Nevada mountains . Although he noted that " in appearance it differs so much from any species known to us , as to be almost deemed worthy of generic rank " , he thought that placement in the puffball genus '' Lycoperdon '' was the most appropriate classification , despite its unusual cortex . Harkness 's type collections were destroyed in the fires following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . In 1904 , Curtis Gates Lloyd considered the species better placed in '' Calvatia '' , because of the resemblance of its deeply colored capillitial threads ( coarse thick-walled cells found in the gleba ) to those of '' Calvatia caelata '' ; he called the species '' Calvatia sculptum '' . The mushroom is known by several common names , including the " sculpted puffball " , the " sculptured puffball " , the " pyramid puffball " , and the " Sierran puffball "
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Calvatia sculpta