giant puffball thing - Entoloma abortivum?

[Anodyne]

I saw these growing under some Moreton Bay figs today and couldn't figure out what they were...

There were a couple of small ball(-ish)-shaped piece in there, but the rest seemed to be a pretty undifferentiated mass...

Another clump nearby showed pieces that looked like some kind of outer skin, but the mass was all cracked up and not in the least puffball-shaped, and had nothing that looked like a spore-producing structure...

Then I remembered finding this under another Moreton Bay fig last winter, and wondered if they are the same thing?

Does anyone know if it's the same, and if so what is it? Doesn't really look like the pictures of other giant puffballs I've seen.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Anodyne

[IndianDreaming]

Awesome - Love puff balls...

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Your the giant in those pics ano!

[Anodyne]

Saw these again & thought I'd have another go at getting an ID - any thoughts? Last pic shows the underside - again, no clear structures, just a small root-like bit in the middle, like a puffball would.

I've gone back a few days later & still not seen any obvious spore-producing bits, they just go a bit yellow with age - don't most puffballs usually turn into a big spore mass when they mature? These things freak me out a little!

[Berengar]

Entoloma abortivum comes to mind...

[Anodyne]

Interesting! Never heard of these guys before - thankyou, you're a wealth of knowledge sir!

They do look a lot like this picture from the Shroomery (most other pics show a more rounded, popcorny form):

However I've never seen any of the unaborted forms, or the Armillaria that are supposed to grow with them - just the popcorn-thing, nothing else visible nearby. Nearest I've seen are some Lepista & Ileodictyon, both ~10m away. I wonder if the Entolomas could form a similar relationship with a microscopic fungus?

[Berengar]

Unfortunately I don't know much about them. It's possible it's some other kind of parasite, which isn't so picky about the host, or it could even be a viral infection. But it surely looks really weird.