Geastrum welwitschii
| Geastrum welwitschii | |
|---|---|
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| Left: type specimen; right: specimen collected in Florida, and kept at the herbarium of the Department of Agriculture, Washington | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Geastrales |
| Family: | Geastraceae |
| Genus: | Geastrum |
| Species: | G. welwitschii |
| Binomial name | |
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Geastrum welwitschii Mont. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Geastrum javanicum var. welwitschii (Mont.) P. Ponce de León |
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| Geastrum welwitschii | |
|---|---|
| Mycological characteristics | |
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glebal hymenium |
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no distinct cap |
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spore print is brown |
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ecology is saprotrophic |
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edibility: inedible |
Geastrum javanicum var. welwitschii (Mont.) P. Ponce de León
Geastrum radicans Berk. & M.A. Curtis
Geastrum welwitschii is a species of fungus in the earthstar family. When young and unopened, the fruit bodies resemble small spheres lying in the soil. As the mushroom matures, the thick leathery outer layer of tissue (the peridium) splits star-like to form a number of fleshy arms, which curve downward to reveal the inner spore sac that contains the fertile tissue known as the gleba. The spore sac has a narrow grooved opening at the top where the spores are released. Fully expanded, the fruit bodies are up to 35 mm (1.4 in) wide and 58 mm (2.3 in) tall. First collected from Spain in the mid-19th century, the fungus is distributed in Europe, North America, and Bermuda.
The fungus was first collected in Spain by the Austrian explorer and botanist Friedrich Welwitsch. British mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley obtained the specimens and thought them to be Geastrum fimbriatum. He sent a specimen to the French mycologist Camille Montagne in 1856, who named it Geaster Welwitschii (Geaster is an orthographical variant of Geastrum).Patricio Ponce de León in his 1968 world monograph of Geastrum, considered the species a variety of G. javanicum, and described it as Geastrum javanicum var. welwitschii; this is now a synonym.
According to Stanek's infrageneric (ranks below the level of genus) concept of the genus Geastrum, G. welwitschii is classified in the section Basimyceliata, which includes species in which the outer part of the mycelial layer do not incorporate sand and encrusting debris. It is further classified in the subsection Laevistomata because its peristome (an opening at the top of the spore sac) is even to fibrillose (with ).
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