Myriostoma coliforme, commonly known as the saltshaker earthstar[2] or pepper pot,[3] is a fungal species in the family Geastraceae.

The species was first mentioned in the scientific literature by Samuel Doody in the second edition of John Ray's Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum in 1696.

[10] The fruit bodies start their development underground or buried in leaf debris, linked to a strand of mycelium at the base.

As they mature, the exoperidium (the outer tissue layer of the peridium) splits open into 7 to 14 rays which curve backward; this pushes the fruit body above the substrate.

The inner pseudoparenchymatous layer (so named for the resemblance to the tightly packed cells of plant parenchyma) is fleshy and thick when fresh, and initially pale beige but darkening to yellow or brown as it matures, often cracking and peeling off in the process.

The roughly spherical spore sac (endoperidium) measures 1–5 cm (0.4–2.0 in) in diameter, and is supported by a cluster of short columns shaped like flattened spheres.

[14] The inedible fruit bodies have no distinct taste, although dried specimens develop an odour resembling curry powder or bouillon cubes.

The gleba is brown to greyish-brown, with a cotton-like texture that, when compressed, allows the endoperidium to flex quickly and create a puff of air that is forced out through the ostioles.

The capillitia (sterile strands within the gleba) are long, slender, free, tapering, unbranched, and 3.3–4 μm thick, with thickened walls.

This was discussed and rejected by Thomas Jenkinson Woodward in 1797: "It has been doubted whether these mouths might not be accidental, and formed by insects after the expansion of the plant.

But this (not to mention their regularity, and that each is furrowed by its border of cilia) is clearly disproved, from the marks of the projections formed by the mouths being seen on the expanded rays, when freshly opened ...

I have likewise found an abortive plant, in which the seed did not ripen; but which had numerous projecting papillae on the head, where the mouths should have been formed.