Monday, April 13, 2020

Nose to the ground

I watch where I step. In open forest, I might be squishing bird's nest look-alikes. They grow on dead twigs, on logs, on bits of bark. And sometimes they even have "eggs".

Two bird's nest fungi on a dead branch. The "eggs" are gone.

The "eggs" are little packages of spores.

The nests are "splash-cups". When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the eggs are expelled to about 1 m away from the cup in some species. (Wikipedia)

On a larger branch. With young kinnikinnick, moss, and the braided dried cedar tips.

Side view of a nest. About 5 mm. tall.

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Caminando en el bosque, piso con cuidado; no sea que aplaste un hongo "nidito de pájaro" que hasta puede contener "huevos".

Los "huevos" son paquetitos de esporas en el fondo del hongo. Cuando cae una gota de lluvia, los bota afuera; pueden llegar hasta a un metro del nido.

Ya pasó la temporada; ninguno de estos honguitos tenía huevos.

La planta en la segunda foto es kinnikinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, una planta nativa de esta región. El nombre científico quiere decir Racimo de uvas de osos, uva-oso. Las frutillas son rojas y muy pequeñas, y si, se las comen los osos.

2 comments:

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

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