Kuma Nature Reserve

This is all that's left of this powdery spored species once the spores have been dispersed. Earlier it would have been more-or-less spherical, with a thin skin surrounding a mass of powdery spores within a cotton-wool-like mass of fibres. the skin breaks away to expose the spores, thereby allowing breezes to carry them away. The whole spore mass is supported on a sterile and slightly spongy base, shaped a bit like an upside-down cone - and that base is what you see here.