- Fungi Including Lichens
- ›Basidiomycete Fungi
- ›Higher Basidiomycetes
- ›Mushrooms, Bracket Fungi, Puffballs, and Allies
- ›Agaricomycetidae
- ›boletes and allies
- ›Sclerodermatineae
- ›Diplocystidaceae
Barometer Earthstars
Astraeus
Astraeus is a genus of fungi in the family Diplocystaceae. The genus, which has a cosmopolitan distribution, contains nine species of earthstar mushrooms. They are distinguished by the outer layer of flesh (exoperidium) that at maturity splits open in a star-shape manner to reveal a round spore sac. Additionally, they have a strongly hygroscopic character—the rays will open when moist, but when hot and dry will close to protect the spore sac. Species of Astraeus grow...
11 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Hygroscopic Earthstar
speciesAstraeus hygrometricus
Astraeus morganii
speciesAstraeus morganii
Smith's earthstar
speciesAstraeus smithii
giant hygroscopic earthstar
speciesAstraeus pteridis
Astraeus telleriae
speciesAstraeus telleriae
Astraeus ryoocheoninii
speciesAstraeus ryoocheoninii
Astraeus koreanus
speciesAstraeus koreanus
Astraeus sp. 'CA01'
speciesAstraeus sp. 'CA01'
Astraeus sirindhorniae
speciesAstraeus sirindhorniae
Astraeus asiaticus
speciesAstraeus asiaticus
Astraeus maculatus
speciesAstraeus maculatus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Astraeus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 48774.