A strange inhabitant of the woods

This week, there was a little excursion to do some surveying in the local woods. You may have been there, and if so, you may have been delighted by these crazy, alien-looking objects:

In the centre of each one is a soft papery globe. When they were given a poke, a little cloud of spores puffed through the single pore.  So you might think 'well, it must be a puffball', but that's not quite true. This is an Earthstar and it's in the Geastraceae family, whereas Common puffballs (the sort kids like to kick on school playing fields) and Giant puffballs (that can actually be as big as footballs) are in a different family, the Lycoperdaceae.*

[Etymology corner: Ge-astra literally means 'earth - star' (think ge-ology and astr-onomy). But do you know what Lycoperdon means? It means wolf fart. Perhaps this shines a light into the mindset of mycologists, I don't know].

Eighteen species of Earthstar have allegedly been recorded in this country (though my books seem to have about half a dozen of the most common). I think our one above is the Collared earthstar (Geastrum triplex) and is distinctive with its inner saucer-like collar. Around the collar are extremely fleshy-feeling rays, where the fruiting body has split as it's opened. The picture above right shows the rays bending right back underneath (quite weirdly, like little tentacles or claws or something).

Bernard Spragg's image of Astraeus hygrometricus.

Here's another species you could find - you'll note it hasn't got the extra collar. Its common name is the 'Poor man's weather glass' because it spreads its rays out in damp weather, but folds them back in when it's dry.

People collected some specimens, so I'm putting those in the freeze drier later. I feel quite hopeful that they'll come out well.

*I've just found out that through DNA analysis, puffballs have now been put into the Agaricaceae. The implication is that they're more closely related to certain 'mushrooms with caps and gills', even though they have much more in common structurally with the non-gilled Gastromycetes like Earthstars. This is hurting my brain a bit. Taxonomists are always doing this - I suppose it's a good thing, as the new arrangements should increasingly reflect the true underlying relationships. But it does make it difficult to keep up! I will look for the best current source for your labels.

Regardless, all this taxonomic juggling can't take away from the simple pleasures of stumbling across crazy-looking fungi. Long may this continue.

Some vaguely mushroom-shaped willow sculptures by Tom Hare (cc image Leonora Enking)