Mushrooms like stars on the ground

Hellow,

I have been writing a blog at Japanese blog cite so far, but blogs in Japanese may not be read by people outside Japan.

So I decided to start an English blog. However, I'm not good at English, so I'm not confident that people will understand my content.

Today, the weather got nicer in the afternoon, so I went for a walk in the small mountain forest near my parents' house. (November 17th)

When I looked at the carved slope beside the road which I usually pass by by car, I noticed small unique mushrooms, Astraeus hygrometricus, commonly known as the earthstar.

⇩It appears under the Quercus tree.(red arrow)

⇩These are the mushrooms shown in the photo above.

This mushroom is an ectomycorrhizal fungus that has a symbiotic relationship with tree roots such as Pine trees or Quercus trees.

Earthstars often occur on the carved slope beside the roads where the slope is exposed. Why it happens is not well understood. However, I think that the fine roots of the trees are close to the slope surface, therefore the earthstars may have easily symbiotic relationship with them.

⇩The young immature mushroom is spherical in shape and semi-subterranean in the soil. (shown below)　This young mushroom is edible. In the past, there was a custom of eating this in some areas of Japan. According to information online, canned mushrooms are sold in Thailand. But I haven't eaten yet. 　

This young mushroom is called a bean dumpling, mame-danngo in Japanese from its shape at Fukushima prefecture.

⇩The outer shell splits into a star shape when it matures.　The round bag appears from inside.

This round bag is filled with spores and of course we can't eat it.

⇩Spores are released from the hole at the top when the rain hits the bag.

⇩When it becomes sunny and dry, the outer shells become curly like this.

⇩However, if placed in a high humidity, the outer shells will stretch and return to its original shape.　This is too stretched and looks more like an octopus than a star on the ground.

So, this mushroom is sometimes called a mushroom hygrometer.

⇩Mature mushrooms cannot be eaten as mentioned above. So, we have to dig out immature mushrooms.　The best season to dig out is said to be around June. I wish I could get more quantity enough to be used for cooking etc. Some people are trying to cultivate this mushroom artificially.

But until now, no one has succeeded in cultivating earthstars, as far as I know.

⇩On my way home, I found a moss terrarium grown on a small tree stump. When I look at it this way, moss also looks cute.