It is a " fornicate " species of earthstar, meaning that the tips of the rays press down so as to raise the spherical spore sac into the air.
12.
In the new study, the spores were found with the spore sac that produced them, indicating they came from a land-based plant, said study author Charles Wellman of the University of Sheffield in England.
13.
""'Geastrum pectinatum " "'is an inedible species of mushroom belonging to the commonly known as the "'beaked earthstar "'or the "'beret earthstar "', in reference to the shape of the spore sac and its prominent, protruding peristome.
14.
Like many earthstars, the fungus uses the force of falling raindrops to help disperse the spores, which are ejected in little bursts when objects ( such as rain ) strike the outer wall of the spore sac.
15.
There are columellae ( sterile structures that start at the base of the gleba and extend through it ), which are usually not evident in the mature gleba, but apparent at the base of the spore sac.
16.
Hat-throwing fungi fire their spore capsules up to 2 m, and the cannonball fungi of the genus Sphaerobolus, such as " S . stellatus ", the artillery fungus can throw sticky spore sacs up to 6 m horizontally.
17.
The small, tough, �m . " Geastrum quadrifidum " is one of a number of earthstars whose rays arch downward as they mature, lifting the spore sac upward, high enough to catch air currents that disseminate the spores into new habitats.
18.
As the mushroom matures, the thick leathery outer layer of tissue ( the peridium ) splits star-like to form a number of fleshy arms, which curve downward to reveal the inner spore sac that contains the fertile tissue known as the gleba.
19.
The closely related species " Battarrea diguettii " is known in the United States from the Mojave desert, and differs from " B . phalloides " in that the spore sac emerges by ripping through the top of the exoperidium, rather than by circumscissile rupture.
20.
Curtis Gates Lloyd described " Bovistoides simplex " from a South African specimen in 1919, but in 1942, William Henry Long examined that specimen and concluded that it was a weathered spore sac of " M . coliforme " that had become detached from the outer star-shaped exoperidium.
