Hi Deep Look and KQED Science Fans, Ever heard of bird’s nest fungi? They’re likely not on your radar if you are a mushroom forager. These curious mushrooms are not poisonous, but they’re small (two can fit on your thumbnail) and don’t have much taste or nutritional value. They look like the tiniest of bird’s nests, with even tinier eggs laid by the tiniest of birds, all in service of their unusual reproductive strategy. The part that looks like a nest is a cup that holds sacs with millions of spores just waiting for a raindrop to launch them far and wide. These fascinating mushrooms – of which there are several species – grow on logs and twigs in the forest or mulch in your backyard. They’re relatively easy to spot once you know what you’re looking for. Watch them in action and find out how we filmed them in this week’s video and newsletter.
Those little ‘eggs’ you see have no yolks. Each one is a spore sac waiting for a single raindrop to catapult it on a journey, with a layover inside the bowels of an herbivore.
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🍄 The part of a fungus that grows aboveground is called the fruit body, and its job is to spread the fungus’ spores. The fruit bodies of bird’s nest fungi are shaped like tiny nests. They are also known as splash cups. 💧 Inside the ‘nest’ or splash cup are what look like bird’s eggs. They are actually tiny sacs called peridioles that hurtle off in milliseconds when a raindrop hits them. 🌿 As the peridiole flies, it unfurls a cord with a sticky bit at the end called the hapteron. With some luck, it attaches itself to a blade of grass or twig. 🧵 The peridiole waits, dangling from its thin but surprisingly strong cord. The cord is made of thousands of entwined threads called hyphae – that same webby material a fungus grows underground. 🦌 If a hungry deer eats the grass, it will take the peridiole with it and end up scattering spores far and wide in its droppings.
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Name That Fungus!
This fungus looks and smells like decaying meat — on purpose. Its goopy lattice-shaped fruit body gives off a rotten odor that attracts flies, which help spread its spores far and wide. What is it? Find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Tiny Ocean Wonders with Deep Look at the California Academy of Sciences
Join Deep Look’s lead producer and cinematographer Josh Cassidy and producer Rosa Tuirán on Thursday, March 20 at 8:30pm for a special screening featuring tiny ocean wonders as a part of NightLife in the Deep at the California Academy of Sciences. From barnacles and corals to baby jellyfish and nudibranchs, you’ll see incredible short films that reveal these critters’ rare and strange behaviors up close. Plus, chat with scientists that helped us make the films.There are also other amazing ocean-related things to see and do! Doors open at 6 p.m. This is a 21+ only event. Tickets required.
Deep Look’s lead producer and cinematographer Josh Cassidy films a type of bird’s nest fungus called Cyathus olla growing in the mulch in a Menlo Park backyard. For this episode, we filmed part of the footage using a high-speed camera so we could capture the very fast spore sacs flying away. Water dripped onto the mushrooms from a tube we rigged above them. You can see photos of our full filming set up on Patreon. Join for as little as $3 per month so you can help us to keep making incredible up-close videos about the tiny, unseen dramas playing out every day in the natural world. Plus, depending on your level of support, you’ll get more behind-the-scenes stories and exclusive swag, like T-shirts, stickers and more!
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ANSWER TO NAME THAT CRITTER
Red cage fungus! Inside this fungus there is a sticky, gooey substance called gleba, which contains the fungus’ reproductive spores. The gleba gives the mushroom a fetid aroma that attracts flies. Find out more in our video: This Mushroom Fakes Its Own Death to Trick Flies
