These tiny forest fungi use a cool trick to disperse their spores
With all these wonderful rainy days, the forests are probably bursting at the seams with mushrooms. Some mushrooms, like the bright scarlet waxy cap or the colorful coral fungus, immediately draw your attention as they poke up out of the brown redwood duff.
However, one of my favorite redwood mushrooms is not so easy to spot: the bird’s nest fungus, which can measure less than 5mm across—about the size of a pencil-top eraser. Bird’s nest fungus, in the family Nidulariaceae, is obviously named for its appearance. This fungus receives its nutrients from decaying wood and plant matter, and therefore is commonly found on fallen logs or branches.
Not only does this mushroom look really cool, like a bird’s nest with little eggs in it, but it has an interesting trick to help reproduction. Inside each “bird’s nest” are tiny flattened spheres that look like eggs. These are capsules called peridioles, which house spores.
The mushroom is shaped in a way that it becomes a perfect splash cup. When a raindrop falls and hits the cup, it propels the peridioles into the air—up to a meter away! The peridioles can then land on a solid surface, such as a leaf or twig, and stick to it. From there, the spores are released and the whole life cycle starts over again.
Make sure to check out this rockin’ video of spore dispersal featuring bird’s nest mushrooms.
