Geastrum tenuipes

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This species shows itself each year in various places in this suburban garden. The roughly globose spore sacs are between about 1 and 1.5 centimetres in diameter. The fruit body on the right developed more recently than that on the left since the arms of its star-like base are still quite fleshy. Photo 2 shows the older fruit body turned over so as to show the grooved underside of the spore sac. Photo 3 shos the younger fruit body, the arrow pointing to a fleshy collar that surrounds the stem. That collar is not robust and it shrivels readily. In Photo 4 you see the same fruit body after it has been left to dry naturally over several days. The collar has shrivelled and collapsed, revealing the stem that supports the spore sac. In this case, as well as shrivelling, the collar has ruptured and the arrow points to one end of the now-ruptured collar. Sometimes the collar remains as a loose, shrivelled ring around the base of the stem but more often with this species I see specimens where the collar has disappeared completely.