Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Earth Star

5 more pictures in notes above ! :) This year I really noticed that it's been warmer, and I kept waiting for frosty days to arrive and they just didn't. We got some very early morning frost on a couple of days but it melted quickly, and then nothing at all. Last night it was finally extremely cold and I could tell it would be frosty today. When I got up, I looked outside, and the world was twinkling with sugar coating everything! Hooray!!! (I was amazed to find out that the last day Medford, Oregon's weather has recorded frost was March 24. That's 240 days, the longest nonfreezing period since the weather service started keeping Medford records in 1911! And the last record was LAST YEAR, which was 230 days...can you say global warming? *sigh*...) I bundled up in my warmest sweaters and a coat, donned a hat and pulled rubber boots on over my thickest socks, and out I went like a kid running into a candy store! Where do I start? Everything is so gloriously sparkly!!! Crunching gleefully over the frosted grass, I began heading for a metal fence, since those are always such fun to capture frost on. But of course I was stopped in my tracks by a beautiful frosted mushroom. Walking past the oak tree in the meadow, I stopped to take a picture as it stood cloaked in the frosty fog, so beautiful. (see the inset above) Then I captured some leaves bristling with frosty crystals, and finally meandered over to the fence. No more frost, but no worries, because I spotted some frosty nails that I couldn't resist! Then I looked up and saw the moon, and got a picture of that too! I heard some geese fly by quite close by, and readied my camera, but never did see them in all the mist! I decided it was time to head back, though truthfully, it was my frosted toes that made that decision! As I began walking back, I looked down and found a great prize! One of nature's most unusual fungus species happens to grow on our property, and it's called an earthstar! Related to a puffball and round when first growing, the outer layer opens up and splits, creating the "legs" you see, which eventually raise the puffball-spore sac above the ground to help disperse the spores when it opens! Is that cool or what?! I carried it over to some moss and was pleased to get frosty images of this interesting fungus for my Picture of the Day! Finally, as I was walking back, I found another pair of frosty mushrooms that I'm also sharing a picture of tonight! William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Wikipedia: William Shakespeare Explored on November 22, 2013. Highest placement, page 2.

I thought it would be nice to share another angle of this beautiful earthstar. Isn't it interesting how leathery it appears? It is quite tough, actually! They are said to be edible, but nobody in their right might would, as it would be like chewing on a rubber tire! :D From Wiki: Astraeus hygrometricus, commonly known as the hygroscopic earthstar, the barometer earthstar, or the false earthstar, is a species of fungus in the Diplocystaceae family. Young specimens resemble a puffball when young and unopened. In maturity, the mushroom displays the characteristic earthstar shape that is a result of the outer layer of fruit body tissue splitting open in a star-like manner. The false earthstar is an ectomycorrhizal species that grows in association with various trees, especially in sandy soils. A. hygrometricus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is common in temperate and tropical regions. Its common names refer to the fact that it is hygroscopic (water-absorbing), and can open up its rays to expose the spore sac in response to increased humidity, and close them up again in drier conditions. The rays have an irregularly cracked surface, while the spore case is pale brown and smooth with an irregular slit or tear at the top. The gleba is white initially, but turns brown and powdery when the spores mature. The spores are reddish-brown, roughly spherical with minute warts, measuring 7.5–11 micrometers in diameter.

A few days ago I was down by our seasonal pond and I almost stepped on this thing! I couldn't understand what I was looking at until I studied it closely. It's an EARTHSTAR MUSHROOM (Astraeus hygrometricus)!! ((HUGE thanks to John Plischke (fungi020 www.flickr.com/photos/39275226@N00 ) for identification of this truly amazing fungus!) There were about five others next to it about the same size. After John told me what this was, I did some reading and found lots of information! These mushrooms begin their lives as huge round PUFFBALLS and split into these rays that you see, but in the center is a smaller ball which is slowly exposed as the rays split, and finally it becomes the top, shown here! Isn't that just AMAZING????!!!! Would you like to see this mushroom open up?!!! I found three time-lapse videos on YouTube so you can see the puffball open and the rays splitting apart! EXTREMELY COOL to see!!! Earth Stars--The Private Life of Plants Earthstar fungi rising time lapse Geastrum saccatum earthstar puffball If you would like to read more about these, there is a wiki page here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astraeus_hygrometricus I found another page here: www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Astraeus_hygrometricus.html