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.<\/p>\n
Collared Earthstar fungus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe 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. <\/p>\nEarthstar expelling spores<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nEarthstars are relatively uncommon. The star shape is the result of the outer skin opening up. This is one in the closed state. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMy thanks to Dr Martyn Stenning for the opportunity to see and photograph this. It's sufficiently rare that I may not get another chance.<\/p>\nCamera 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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[443,369],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fungi","tag-earthstar","tag-fungus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
<\/a><\/p>\nThe 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. <\/p>\nEarthstar expelling spores<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nEarthstars are relatively uncommon. The star shape is the result of the outer skin opening up. This is one in the closed state. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMy thanks to Dr Martyn Stenning for the opportunity to see and photograph this. It's sufficiently rare that I may not get another chance.<\/p>\nCamera 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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[443,369],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fungi","tag-earthstar","tag-fungus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
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. <\/p>\n
Earthstar expelling spores<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nEarthstars are relatively uncommon. The star shape is the result of the outer skin opening up. This is one in the closed state. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMy thanks to Dr Martyn Stenning for the opportunity to see and photograph this. It's sufficiently rare that I may not get another chance.<\/p>\nCamera 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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[443,369],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fungi","tag-earthstar","tag-fungus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
Earthstars are relatively uncommon. The star shape is the result of the outer skin opening up. This is one in the closed state. <\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMy thanks to Dr Martyn Stenning for the opportunity to see and photograph this. It's sufficiently rare that I may not get another chance.<\/p>\nCamera 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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[443,369],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fungi","tag-earthstar","tag-fungus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[443,369],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fungi","tag-earthstar","tag-fungus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
![](\"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/earthstar_fungus_2008081320.jpg\")
Collared Earthstar fungus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n