Geastrum quadrifidum
Description
Geastrum quadrifidum is a mushroom called the Earth star mushroom. It was first described by a scientist named Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1794. These mushrooms are found in many parts of the world, including Europe, America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
These mushrooms are small and tough, and they look like gray-brown spheres with layers of tissue. When they grow, the outer layers split open to make them look like a star. Inside, there is fertile tissue called gleba that produces spores. These spores start off white and hard but turn brown and powdery as they get older. The spores are inside a spore box on top of a short, slender stem, and there's a small hole at the top for the spores to escape.
The outer skin is purplish-brown, and it has four or five cream or yellowish-brown rays that are stuck in the ground. There's a network of threads between the tips of the rays. The spores are round, bumpy, and about 6 micrometers wide.
What's interesting about Geastrum quadrifidum is that as it matures, its rays arch downward, lifting the spore sac upward. This helps the mushroom catch air currents that carry its spores to new places.
Common names: Rayed Earthstar, Four-Footed Earthstar.
Mushroom Identification
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Fruit Bodies
Up to 0.79 inches (2 cm) in diameter, rounded shape, with a short-conical top, after opening the diameter of the fruit body reaches 1.18 to 1.57 inches (3 to 4 cm).
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Outer Shell
The exoperidium (outer shell) is hard, three-layered, white or whitish, both externally and internally, when ripe it breaks into 4 (8) pointed blades that bend downwards, raising the glebe above the soil level, sometimes the exoperidium is divided into two additional layers, which at the ends of the blades remain undivided.
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Inner Shell
Endoperidium (inner shell) single-layered, papery, cervically narrowed under the glebe, thin, smooth or fibrous, grayish-blue, bluish-gray, whitish, brownish, blackish, located on a short, whitish, cervically narrowed, flattened stem, with a disk-like expansion – an apophysis, with a cone-shaped, fibrous-ciliated, radial-fibrous peristome, with an opening for the release of the spore mass.
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Spore-Bearing Layer
The soil (spore-bearing layer) is 0.35 to 0.63 inches (0.9 to 1.6 cm) high, 0.20 to 0.47 inches (0.5 to 1.2 cm) in diameter, dark brown or purplish-brown, and dusty when ripe.
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Spores
3.5-6 μm, rounded, with a warty surface, light brown or brown.
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Spore Print
Dark brown with a purple tint.
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Habitat
It grows from August to October, in coniferous and mixed forests, with pines and spruces, on sandy soils, and on coniferous and deciduous litter. Dried fruiting bodies are stored until the spring of the following year.
Look-Alikes
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Size: Larger, up to 15 cm
Spore Size: Smaller, 4–5 μm in diameter
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Size: Small like G. quadrifidum
Rays: More than seven
Mycelial Layer: Attached to the fibrous layer for a long time, without forming a mycelial cup like G. quadrifidum
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Geastrum jurei
Peristome: Not clearly demarcated
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Geastrum dissimile
Peristome: Often sulcate or silky fimbriate, smooth
Spore Size: Slightly smaller, 4–5 μm in diameter
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Geastrum leptospermum
Spore Size: Smaller, 2–3 μm in diameter
Habitat: Prefers growing in mosses on tree trunks
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Geastrum welwitschii
Mycelial Cup: Epigeal mycelial cup with a felted or tufted outer surface
Peristome: Indistinctly delimited
History
In 1794, a Dutch mushroom expert named Christian Hendrik Persoon described a mushroom called Geastrum quadrifidum. He officially confirmed this name in 1801. This mushroom was previously known by other names like Lycoperdon coronatum by Jacob Christian Schaeffer in 1763 and Geaster coronatus by Joseph Schröter in 1889, but these names are not used anymore because Persoon's name is accepted.
In Japan, some people mistakenly called it "Geastrum minus" (Pers.) G. Cunn., which is not correct.
According to a classification by Stanek, G. quadrifidum belongs to a group of similar mushrooms called Glabrostoma in the Perimyceliata section. These mushrooms incorporate debris into their mycelial layer and have a specific type of opening.
The name "quadrifidum" comes from Latin and means "four-forks," referring to its appearance.
Synonyms
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Geastrum coronatum (Scop.) J.Schröt., 1889
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Geastrum quadrifidum var. minus Pers., 1801
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Geastrum minus (Pers.) G.Cunn., 1926
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Lycoperdon coronatum Scop., 1772
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Lycoperdon secundum Schaeff., 1763
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Adrien BENOIT à la GUILLAUME (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Sasata (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Sasata (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Dan Molter (shroomydan) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 5 - Author: Len Worthington (lennyworthington) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Color:Gray
Shape: Earthstars