I'd never heard of 'earthstars' before, but when I received a phone call this morning saying they'd appeared in some nearby woodland I had to go and see for myself. It was only a 3 minute walk, and of course I took my camera with me.
The central body of the opened star is essentially a thin-skinned bag through which spores are expelled. We took a few shots which I've put together as an animation. You can see the spores emerging to the right of the body.
Earthstars are relatively uncommon. The star shape is the result of the outer skin opening up. This is one in the closed state.
My thanks to Dr Martyn Stenning for the opportunity to see and photograph this. It's sufficiently rare that I may not get another chance.
Camera note: The first shot was taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. For the rest I used the EF17-40mm f/4L USM. All shots were taken with flash.
Vulpes vulpes
20 Aug 2008Funny, I saw those last year I think and wondered what they were! Nifty animation.
Cynthia23
21 Aug 2008Never before have I seen these! Awesome opportunity Words! Thanks for this post.
FrogBoots
21 Aug 2008Super! Thanks for sharing! :up: 🙂
Flying Red Fox Blog
21 Aug 2008Wow what an interesting find! 😀 The photo with your fingers seems to move but that might be my pc playing up is it?
Ukwildlife
21 Aug 2008great find.
Is it just mean or could the animation be misintepreted by some with a less than clean mind lol 😉 😆
cakkleberrylane
21 Aug 2008Very interesting and an amazing opportunity for you to photograph and for us to read. Thanks for the post!
SittingFox
21 Aug 2008Cool animation! Great find :up:
Words
22 Aug 2008Mark, yes it was good find, but not down to me. I wouldn't have known what I was looking at. The fingers aren't mine either! But I did take the photos and make the animation of the spores coming out. That's three shots put together and turned into an animated gif file.
Words
22 Aug 2008FB, thanks!
Words
22 Aug 2008Neil, I don't know what you mean :whistle:
Words
22 Aug 2008Vulpes, they were a new one on me. Glad they helped you i.d. your sighting.
Words
22 Aug 2008Lois, thanks. I was delighted to get the chance to see them.
Words
22 Aug 2008Adele, thanks. Until I got the shots I wasn't sure if I'd caught the spores. Once I saw I had, animating was the obvious thing to do.
Words
22 Aug 2008Thanks Cynthia.