An Excerpt from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

Yucatan earthstar

from the September 6, 2009 Newsletter, issued from the Siskiyou Mountains west of Grants Pass, Oregon:
EARTHSTAR IN THE YUCATAN

Deep in the forest where trails start petering out the forest grows higher, the shade is heavier and the humidity higher. It smells fungusy, and fungi love the environment. One of the most eye-catching is shown above.

That's an earthstar very similar to those up North, of the genus GEASTRUM, but who knows how they classify this Yucatán branch of the group?

Earthstars are puffballs. At the picture's lower left a pointy-topped new one is emerging. Later its brown skin will split longitudinally, segments between the splits will peel back, and the pretty form presented at the right will appear. As the spherical puffball nesting among the recurved arms matures it develops an opening at its top through which its reproductive spores will escape.

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