The treatment of this species by certain taxonomists well illustrate the pitfalls that lie in wait for those who worship at the shrine of ontogenic classification ... The only feature of those outlined in which the species differ from others of Geastrum is the somewhat primitive hymenium . In the developing plant the glebal cavities are separated by tramal plates so tenuous as to be overlooked by the uncritical worker . Each cavity is filled with basidia somewhat irregularly arranged in clusters ( like those of Scleroderma ) and not in the definite palisade of the species which have been studied . This difference disappear as maturity is reached , when plants resemble closely the fructification of any other member of the genus . The taxonomist is then unable to indicate any point of difference by which " Astraeus " may be separated from Geastrum , which indicate that the name should be discarded .