The fungus is a saprobe, feeding off decomposing organic matter present in the soil and litter of coniferous forests.

The small, tough, fruit bodies are grayish-brown balls that are initially enclosed by a skin, or peridium, made up of four distinct layers of tissue.

The outer tissue layer splits to form star-like rays and expose a circular spore case.

Inside the spore case is the gleba—fertile spore-producing tissue that is white and firm when young, but becomes brown and powdery in age.

[14] Samuel Frederick Gray called it the "four-cut shell-puff" in his 1821 The Natural Arrangement of British Plants,[15] but the name was not adopted by subsequent authors.

In this way, the endoperidium (the internal tissue layer that encloses the spore sac) is lifted upwards with the downward movement of the rays.

The pseudoparenchymatous layer when fresh is about 1–2 mm thick, initially whitish, later turning beige to brownish (sometimes over reddish tints), and dark brown when old.

The endoperidium in newly expanded fruit bodies is pruinose: covered with a light beige to whitish powder of hyphae and crystalline matter.

The peristome (a clearly demarcated region encircling the opening of the spore sac) is distinctly delimited, with a disc-like to more or less conical shape.

When they are young, they are more or less ellipsoid to club-shaped, but in age they often become more or less bottle-shaped, ampullaceous or sometimes almost lecythiform, among other shapes; when mature they measure 14–21 x 4.5–7 μm (excluding the hyphal part).

The hyphae located immediately underneath the basidia are thin-walled, 1–2 μm wide, provided with clamps and densely branched.

Scanning electron microscopy reveals the verrucae to be up to 0.8 μm long, conical to columnar processes with rounded to almost flattened tips.

[18] The capillitium refers to coarse, late-maturing, thick-walled cells in the gleba that develop pores or slits in their thick secondary walls.

The whitish powder on newly expanded specimens consists of crystalline matter and thin-walled, 1.5–4 μm wide, branched hyphae with clamps.

[18] The crystals are calcium oxalate dihydrate that have the crystalline structure of a pyramid, and are arranged singly or in loose aggregates, 11 to 30 μm in size.

The outer part (the mycelial cup) consists of thick-walled, branched and densely interwoven hyphae (often with a narrow lumen) that measure 1.5–4 μm wide.

Geastrum dissimile differs from G. quadrifidum by its often sulcate or silky fimbriate, smooth peristome, and slightly smaller spores (4–5 μm in diameter).

[24] Geastrum leptospermum can be distinguished from G. quadrifidum by its smaller spores (2–3 μm in diameter),[25] and by its preference for growing in mosses on tree trunks.

G. welwitschii differs from G. quadrifidum by its epigeal mycelial cup with a felted or tufted outer surface, and indistinctly delimited peristome.

European countries from which the fungus has been reported include Belgium,[22][26] Denmark,[27] France,[28] Germany,[29] Montenegro,[30] Norway,[31] Poland,[32] and Sweden.

[37] Because of its rarity, it has been placed on the Regional Red Lists of several European countries, including Montenegro,[30] Denmark,[27] Norway,[38] and Poland.

[32] Like most earthstars, G. quadrifidum is a saprobic fungus, and spends most of its life cycle as thin strands of mycelium, deriving nutrients by decomposing leaf litter and similar detritus, converting it to humus and mineralizing organic matter in the soil.