Handkea fumosa is a typical spring puffball with thick peridium at fairly high elevation for my area (3400 feet). I have found it with Engelmann spruce, pine, hemlock, Douglas fir, and Noble fir. It may be mycorrhizal, since I find it in the same location year after year. The very thick peridium, powdery gleba when mature, and purplish marbled gleba ensure the only thing it is likely to be confused with is one of the Sclerodermas, especially S. hypogaeum, which I have found at the same time of year but at 1,000 feet elevation. C. fumosa has a rank/smelly odor and is epigeous (above ground), while S. hypogaeum, as the name implies, is usually found underground.