Earthstar Fungi – Can It Be Removed?

Q: We have a few clusters of earthstar fungi under our oak tree. Are they something we should remove? Some of them are the size of cantaloupes.

A: There’s not much you can do permanently. Earthstar is just the fruiting body (mushroom) of a particular fungus. The fungus is decomposing something organic in the soil, probably a dead tree root. Unless you can remove the food source, the fungus will keep doing its work and occasionally”blooming” into an earthstar. Eventually, as the root decays, the fungus will go away.

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