A course on puffballs and earthstars, Skåne 2026

The Kurs om röksvampar och jordstjärnor closes the Swedish Mycological Society's calendar for 2026. It runs from 29 to 31 October in Skåne, in the far south of the country, and concerns groups for which such a date is not merely acceptable but right.

Röksvampar are the puffballs and their relatives, fungi with enclosed fruit bodies in which the spores ripen inside and escape through an opening at the top or through the breakdown of the wall. The Swedish name refers directly to smoke, because a ripe fruit body pressed with a finger releases a cloud of spores.

Jordstjärnor, the earthstars of the genus Geastrum, have a structure one step more elaborate. Their outer wall splits in a star and folds outwards, lifting the inner spore ball clear of the litter. In some species the arms respond to humidity, curling in dry air and opening again after rain.

And here lies the reason the course falls at the end of October. Both groups are best identified on mature fruit bodies, and those persist long after the season, because they are dry and tough. An earthstar is often found in winter, in the state in which it survived from autumn. A late date is therefore not a compromise but a choice of the optimal moment.

Skåne is good country for these groups for reasons of soil. It is the most calcareous part of Sweden, and earthstars clearly prefer soils rich in lime and warm situations. Several species have their only or their most numerous localities there.

For a Polish reader the event is a reminder that the mycological season does not end with the last basket of ceps. It merely changes the groups worth attending to — and some of them wait quietly until the collectors stop treading the forest floor.

Protected sand-steppe and a corrected end date

The newer course page schedules the meeting for 29 October–1 November, not the 29–31 October range retained in the March calendar. Ravlunda Bränneri near Kivik is the base. Friday and Saturday have 09:00–15:00 excursions followed by identification and evening reviews; Sunday ends with a field review at noon. The course covers puffballs, earthstars and related fungi in Österlen’s protected sand-steppe.