About this fungus
Shooting Star is a fungus in the Geastraceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A minute artillery fungus on decaying plant material. Each pale closed ball opens into a yellow-orange star that holds one round spore packet.
What to check
Magnification helps because each fruitbody is only about 1 to 3 mm wide. Look for closed pale balls, newly opened star-shaped cups and empty spent stars together. The single darkening peridiole is forcibly launched from the cup.
Variation
Colonies can contain closed whitish fruitbodies, orange open stars with a peridiole, and empty brownish cups at the same time.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic on damp decaying wood, bark mulch, sawdust and other plant debris. Ejected sticky peridioles can leave persistent dark spots on nearby surfaces.
Food safety
Inedible.
Photographs
Eduardo A. Esquivel Rios / CC BY-SA 3.0