Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo: Felty Earthstar (AWD), Linda van der Kamp

Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo: bottom dried Felty Earthstar


Felty Earthstar
(Geastrum saccatum)
NMV Ga 211120

 

 

This website's primary concern is the Amsterdam Area, incl. the pleistocene area (Het Gooi) and parts of the Northsea dunal coast.


Felty Earthstar is a smal to medium sized earthstar, without stem, with a fibriate mouth-zone, with court and often with a clear ring-furrow. Older and more mature Felty Earthstars have a brown-yellow color, a felty pale star-rays-bottom, and enrusted debris, but no scar. Sometimes old Felty Earthstars look like Collared Earthstars with wobble-tiptoes and a pale dirty white layer when the felty layer is worn.

Field-marks to distinct older Felty Earthstar from older Collared Earthstar:

  • Felty Earthstar has a felty layer at the bottom of its star-rays, heeft een kale onderkant.
  • Felty Earthstar maakt vaak een kraag, maar deze is veel onduidelijker dan bij de Collared Earthstar
  • Felty Earthstar De slippenkrans is omgekruld (=saccaat), maar bij oude exemplaren draaien de slippunten vaak terug, naar een uitgespreide stand (=pseudoconvex).
    Bij een Collared Earthstar staat de slippenkrans meestal vrijwel uitgespreid(=convex), zelden omgekruld(=saccaat).
    De slippunten bewegen op oudere leeftijd niet alsnog een andere kant op dan de rest van de slip.
Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum), Meijendel (7 jan 2012)

Collar, tubal, wobble-toes:
Photo: Felty Earthstar, January 7 2012
pseudo-convex star-rays


Mistakability (young):


Mistakability (mature):

Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo:bottom Felty Earthstar,
felty and with curling-wobblish tiptoes
Meijendel, January 7 2012

  Felty Earthstar
(Geastrum saccatum)
Flask Earthstar
(Geastrum lageniforme)
Collared Earthstar
(Geastrum triplex)
Sessile Earthstar
(Geastrum fimbriatum)
star-rays curled (saccate), older curling tiptoes curled (saccate), long, small ray-tips often spread (convex), sometimes curled (saccate) curled (saccate)
bottom star-rays felty thin, bald thick, bald white (below encrusted debris)
encrusted debris no no no yes
with a scar yes (2-4 mm) yes yes no
balloon
(mouth-zone)
fibrillose,
often with court and ring-furrow
fibrillose,
often with court and ring-furrow
fibrillose,
with court, sometimes without ring-furrow
fibrillose,
without court, without ring-furrow
with collar sometimes never often never


How to exclude mistakability:

  • Balloon description (mouth-zone, surface, color)
  • Star-rays description (curling, wobbletoes, color, thickness)
  • Earthstar upside down:
  • Earthstar fixed to the ground (Encrusted debris)
  • Bottom color of the star-rays (pale-white or felty)
  • Check for a scar
  • If this is not helpful: dry the earthstar, and see what changes during the dry-process
Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo: Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum) Meijendel (De Loopert), October 29 2010

Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo: Felty Earthstar (bottom)

Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum) These pictures illustrate the mistakability at yough.

Sessile Earthstar (Geastrum fimbriatum). Elegant Earthstar (Geastrum elegans) and Flask Earthstar (Geastrum lageniforme) start bright-white, with a small white, creme or grey balloon of 6-24 mm in diameter.

The star-rays curling very soon (=saccate), and elevate the balloon a bit. Balloon color (white, grey), Mouth-zone (with/without court), saccate star-rays, are species specific.


Habitat:
Felty Earthstar prefers calcareous on open and poorly vegetated dunes. This means mossy vegetations at dry, humous-poor sandy soil, in dunal grasslands, often near little bushes. Felty Earthstar can be found in relative pioneer vegetations, and in sand-drifted open wood.

Standing-place (older earthstars):
The stand in Meijendel of older collared Felty Eathstars is an east-west dunal hill, with a concave at the north. In that concave there is a Hawthorn wood of about 15 meter length. Halfway, between the Hawthorns there were at least 12 Felty earthstars at January 7 2012.
The soil was poorly bad wssted litter of Hawthorn leaves, and it was poorly vegetated by glechoma hederacea and some grass.

A bit higher at the slope, more sandy, less vegetation, there were more earthstars, smaller, more compact. The lower ones were bigger in size of the ballons and of the star-rays.

First impression:
The first idea was Collared Earthstar, but with something strange (tubal shape wih wobble-toes) Perhaps a dunal shape? Turning the earhstar upside-down, it became clear.
White, pale felty bottom, exit idea Collared Dune Earthstar. This must be Felty Earthstar.


Wood species: not specific, the function of a tree for Felty Earthstar is shadow and protection against the wind.
Deciduous wood (Ash, Black Elder, Common Dwarf Willow, Common Spindle Tree, Elm, Hawthorn)


Regional:

Urban Amsterdam Area: no
Pleistocene Area: no
Northsea Dunal Area: yes

Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo:Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum), Meijendel, January 7 2012


Field-marks: See: Anatomy Genus Geastrum

Felty Earthstar field-marks:

  • Species size: small to medium
  • Stem: No
     
  • Balloon size: 0,7 tot 2,0 cm
  • Balloon surface: bald
  • Balloon color: beige to light grey-brown
  • Balloon mouth-zone: fibrillose, with court, often with ring-furrow
     
  • Star-rays number: 5-8
  • Star-rays-thickness: to 3mm
  • Star-rays surface: thick meaty surface, first white later brown, at drying sometimes collar-forming
  • Star-rays color young: white to beige
  • Star-rays color older: brown
  • Star-rays: old star-ray-tips can curl only once up or down.
  • Star-rays: non-hygroscopic (non-repetitive curling and stretching)
     
  • Star-rays: 1 - 4,5 cm in diameter
  • Star-rays: saccate (curled)
  • Star-rays bottom color: ochre to light brown-yellow felty layer
  • Star-rays-scar: yes 2-4 mm in diameter
  • Star-rays-encrusted-debris: no
Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum)

Photo:Felty Earthstar (Geastrum saccatum), Meijendel, January 7 2012


Literature:
Chrispijn, R. ed. (1999), Champignons in de Jordaan (De paddenstoelen van Amsterdam), Schuyt en Co, 162-163.
Hansen L. & H. Knudsen (1997), Nordic Macromycetes, Vol. 3, Heterobasidioid, aphyllophoroid and gasteromycetoid basidiomycetes, Kopenhagen, 1997, 444 pp.
Jalink, Leo M (1995) De aardsterren van Nederland en België, Coolia 38 Supplement.
www.mycobank.com


Macroscopic Key:
See Macroscopic Key of Earthstars on this site.

Viltige aardster (Geastrum saccatum)

Foto:Viltige aardster (Geastrum saccatum), Meijendel, 7 jan. 2012

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