Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Fabulous Fungi

 I was cleaning up firewood-processing debris from last fall when I came across a log bearing the biggest cluster of Bird's Nest Fungi I've ever seen.  My field guide says these appear in the fall on rotting wood.  They got the rotting wood part right, but it is now June!  Maybe they formed last fall and have simply lasted for months in the shade of a Douglas-fir and some large thistles.  They're really cute.  The little bowls are shaped in such a way that when a rain drop lands at the right angle, the "eggs" are shot into the air a yard or more.  They contains the spores for another generation of these fungi.  Very clever arrangement.

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