A new record of the rare earthstar <em>Geastrum berkeleyi</em> from the Świętokrzyskie Mts

The article presents the third record of Geastrum berkeleyi Massee in Poland. For a long time the only known Polish locality of the species was in Kobylnica near Poznań, where G. berkeleyi was recorded in 1934. The fungus was found for the second time as recently as 2007 in Rąbiń (Kościan County). In 2009 this earthstar species was recorded in Milechowy reserve near Chęciny, in the western part of the Świętokrzyskie Mts (square ATPOL Ee 72). In the last mentioned locality, fruit-bodies of thisrare fungus were recorded in a thermophilous forest habitats and also in a xerothermic anthropogenic shrublands, on a sandy calcareous soil. A comparison of diagnostic features of Geastrum berkeleyi var. berkeleyi and G. berkeleyi var. continentale is also given