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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
‘Earth Stars’, ‘Artillery Fungi’.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; solitary; angiocarpic; star-like in appearance, with a central puff-ball surrounded by arms representing symmetrical splitting and outward peeling off of its outer coat (i.e., the gasterocarp opening via stellate rays of the peridium; the gleba powdery); tiny (in Sphaerobolus), or small to large (in Geastrum); 2–10 cm across (or more in Geastrum, when opened?), or 0.1–0.4 cm across (in Sphaerobolus); about 0.1–0.4 cm high (Sphaerobolus), or 2–10 cm high (Geastrum); brightly pigmented, or not brightly pigmented; orange to yellow (in Sphaerobolus), or light brown, or dark brown, or blackish. The gasterocarp with a columella (a pseudo-columella). Capilliteum present. Gleba at first pale. The peridium dehiscent (splitting radially); splitting radially to form stellate rays. The basidia ‘unmodified’; maturing simultaneously. The basidiospores small; statismosporic; ornamented (warted).
The hyphae with clamp connections. The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae with dolipore septa.
Ecology. The fruit-bodies borne on the ground. Found in coniferous woodland, in broad-leaved woodland, in mixed woodland, and in places modified by human activities.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 21 species in Britain; Geastrum, Myriostoma, Sphaerobolus.
World representation. 62 species; genera 8.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Phallales.
Comments. The exoperidium 3-layered, the gleba powdery.
Illustrations. • Geastrum (7 species) and Sphaerobolus stellatus (LH). GEASTRACEAE. 1, Geastrum rufescens; 2, Geastrum schmidelii; 3, Geastrum quadrifidum; 4, Geastrum fornicatum; 5, Geastrum striatum; 6, Geastrum pectinatum; 7, Geastrum triplex. 8, Sphaerobolus stellatus. Sunesen & Dahlstrøm, in Lange & Hora (1965). • Geastrum fimbriatum (Berkeley). GEASTRACEAE. 4, Geastrum fimbriatum Fr. HYMENOGASTERACEAE. 2, Hymenogaster citrinus Vittad. STEPHANOSPORACEAE. 1, Stephanospora caroticola (Berk.) Pat. PHALLACEAE. 3, Phallus impudicus L. (Stinkhorn). LYCOPERDACEAE. 5, Bovista nigrescens Pers.; 6, Bovista plumbea Pers.; 7, Handkea utriformis (Bull.) Pers.; 8, Lycoperdon umbrinum Pers, or Lycoperdon molle Pers.? From Berkeley (1860). All about 1.5 X life size, or with sections more enlarged. • Sphaerobolus stellatus (Berkeley). GEASTRACEAE. 2, Sphaerobolus stellatus Tode. NIDULARIACEAE. 1, Cyathus olla (Batsch) Pers. GEASTRACEAE. 2, Sphaerobolus stellatus Tode. ANAMORPHIC FUNGUS. 3, Anthina flammea Fr. HELVELLACEAE. 4, Helvella crispa (Scop.) Fr. (False Morel). MORCHELLACEAE. 5, Morchella esculenta (L.) Pers. (Morel); 6, Verpa digitaliformis Pers. CUDONIACEAE. 7, Spathularia flavida Pers. From Berkeley (1860).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
