Tag Archives: earthstar

The stars of the fungi world

22 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in autumn, fungi

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It’s that time of year when stars appear, as if by magic, from the earth and delight those of us lucky enough to find them with their outlandishness.

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And so I made my annual pilgrimage to the location I found a few years ago in a Cardiff cemetery, where I was absolutely delighted to see a very healthy profusion of these beauties.

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There were at least 40, with more still emerging from their ‘shells’. I am, of course, referring to the fungi for which this blog is named, the Earthstars, in this case Collared earthstars (Geastrum triplex).

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17/366 Starry soils

17 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by in fungi, nature

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I know we usually speak of starry skies rather than starry soils but, three years ago, when I still lived in Cardiff, I found this one small patch of dirt, ’neath towering conifers in a local cemetery, where the stars could be found emerging from the soil.

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These Collared earthstars are the reason for the name of this blog: they show how amazing things can be found in everyday places if we only look; they show how incredible Nature is; they inspired me to write this blog, to try to get people to open their eyes to the beauty our world has to offer, even ten minutes’ walk from home.

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This cemetery is no longer managed with wildlife in mind – it is overly neatened and tidied – so I was particularly delighted, during a recent walk, to find these earthstars had escaped the over enthusiast strimming and pruning and scraping and chopping of the council’s operatives. Fingers crossed they continue to thrive.

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Wild Christmas, day 3

27 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in fungi, nature, walks, winter

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I’m currently taking part in the local Wildlife Trusts’ #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge. This ‘is a week-long challenge to do one wild thing a day from the 25th to the 31st of December’. For me a challenge like this is easy peasy ’cause I try to live my whole life as one long wild challenge but I like to support these initiatives to help to inspire other people to put more Nature and wildness in their lives. Believe me, in a world as crazy as ours currently is, you will feel better for it.

For today’s challenge I spent about four hours at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery, hunting for fungi to photograph (not forage) in both the old and new sections of the cemetery. I figured that, after all the rain we’ve had recently, I should be able to find one or two nice things. I wasn’t disappointed.

A new Earthstar

16 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in fungi, nature

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You can’t have a blog called Earthstar without occasionally having a post about an Earthstar, so here it is.

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Though I searched for these amazing little fungi at a known location in Cathays Cemetery a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t find any. So, I was delighted when a birding acquaintance showed me this solitary Earthstar at a completely new location earlier this week.

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This is Geastrum triplex, a Collared earthstar. I’ve previously only found them under conifers but the experts say they are most often found, like this one, under hardwood trees.

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I gave its sac a poke to show my friend how the spores are released – let’s hope that also helped to spread the spores so we see more of these little stunners in future.

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Earthstars!

24 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by in fungi, nature

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Yesterday I discovered I now have 100 followers on this blog – not a patch on those blogs that have thousands, even millions of followers, but I am utterly delighted just the same. Yesterday I also discovered these two gorgeous and very fresh Earthstar fungi (Geastrum sp.) while out wandering along an old railway cutting, now walking track, at a local nature reserve. I have blogged about Earthstars before and they are part of the reason behind the name of this blog, though my idea was also to make our Earth and all her wondrous creatures and creations the stars of my photographs and writing. I presume that you, my followers, are also charmed by the natural world around us, so I would like to dedicate this blog and these Earthstars to you. Thank you all most sincerely for your likes and your comments and for following along with me.

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The stars that fell to earth

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in fungi, nature, nature photography

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I could hardly believe my luck last Friday when I discovered my very first Collared Earthstars (Geastrum triplex) in a Cardiff cemetery!

Nestled cosily amongst the leaf litter and liberally sprinkled with layers of pine needles from the trees above, they were almost hidden from view. It was only the regularity of the little orb, sitting atop the collar, that caught my eye and, at a quick glance, I thought it must be a grave ornament. But no!

Those first two Earthstars were well past their best but, for a relatively new fungi fancier like me, they were still a delight to behold. Imagine my joy then, when I returned the next day for a more thorough investigation, to find a total of fourteen (!) growing in close proximity to the first ones. I’ll certainly be keeping a sharp eye on this area in the future to see if I can spot any more little stars that have fallen to earth.

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