This year's mushroom season was horribly disappointing so far. I've made several 5 km loops in my usual forest, and some in other places, only to pick 2-3 edible mushrooms each time. The lawn in the garden was a winner giving out several slippery jacks. You might think that the exclamation in the title means I've made a good harvest at last, but no, although my aunt posted me a picture of her table covered in mushrooms just a day after she said there were none, so maybe upcoming Saturday will be good. However this post is going to cover a different topic.
This is my contribution to #FungiFriday by
@ewkaw
I've seen various bird's nest fungus multiple times here on Hive, but never in real life. Every time I've seen it here I had questions:
- Why no one takes out the "seeds" from the "cups" to see how they feel?
- Is it just a weird shape of the fungus and the seeds are not really separate?
- Or are they too delicate to be taken out?
- Maybe they are slimy and would attach to your hand, possibly smearing it with putrid liquid like a fruiting body of a slime mold would?
That was an unaddressed curiosity of mine. Until recently.
My mother was preparing flower bed to rest for next season's veggies, she
found the mushrooms and showed them to me. These things are so tiny and they blend in the soil, no wonder I've never seen them before. To be honest I've expected them to be the size of bottle caps and the seeds like whole black pepper.
It is most likely dung-loving bird's nest, because out of three species that grow in Poland, that one fits the most. It also fits that they grew on an empty lot fertilized with fresh compost.
Young ones are closed and "hairy".
When they mature, the "lid" tears open revealing glistening black "seeds" that then gradually fall out when the mushroom is disturbed, usually by raindrops.
So, the seeds, how are they? I've pulled some of them on my hand and I'd say they are like poppy seeds or grains of sand, unexpectedly hard.
Speaking of tiny. The same day I've photographed two other super small mushrooms. Those were at least easy to spot due to contrast with moss and tree bark.
I did not have macro lens nor extra light with me, so the photos are not great, but enough to see that the mushrooms were the size of moss leaves.
That one could be mistaken for a cluster of insect eggs, but there is a blackish previous generation of the fungi below - I've only noticed it while checking the photos.