Earth Star fungus

Spent a very enjoyable day with two friends at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park today, maybe a 45 minutes' drive south-west of Calgary. This time, we walked through wonderful, dense forest (off to the right of the photo) up to Eagle look-out. Here, there is a beautiful view over the valley, rolling foothills of the Rockies and the mountains in the far distance. I believe the temperature was around 30C again, so a hot climb, but we were rewarded with all sorts of interesting plants, insects, a fungus or two, and a few birds, including this very unusual fungus. Thanks, David, for finding this for us to marvel at : ).

"The Earth Star is a striking soil fungus, so named because the outer wall of the spore-bearing body splits open into a star.

One metaphor refers to the rays standing on their tips, like a ballet dancer standing on their toes. Like other earthstars, the outer, leathery wall (peridium) splits open into the rays of a star, but the rays fold down into "legs" that support the spherical spore case that sits on a short stalk or pedicel. The rays are firmly attached to a clump of mycelium and leaf debris."
From "The Amazing Fungi " website.