Sphaerobolus stellatus, "Cannonball Fungus", "Bombardier Fungus", [Greek: sphaer = ball; obolus = to throw; and Latin: stella = star], is a tiny wood-rotting fungus that grows world-wide as colonies on rotting logs, herbivore dung and mulch. Each fruiting body is up to 2.5 mm diameter as a white to yellow-ochre globular mass embedded in a mat of fungal tissue, with an upper opening from which eventually a dark brown ball of spores (a peridiole), diameter 1 mm, is ejected suddenly (1/1000 sec) and forcibly to a distance up to 6 metres. That leaves behind an empty star-shaped cup from the surface of which often protrudes a pearl-coloured ballon-like structure: this is the original lower lining of the structure, which suddenly turns inside-out to do the "cannon-like" ejection. The ejection mechanism involves a build-up of fluid action that causes the lining of the cup to gradually change shape owing to osmotic pressure changes, until the cup lining suddenly everts, popping upwards, thus dispersing the spore mass like a cannon-ball. These fungi are phototropic, and aim the ejection in the direction of the sun. Baldry Crossing, Green's Bush, 2008.