This Mushroom Can Fly
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs have no yolks.
From
This Mushroom Can Fly
Season 10 Episode 5 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs have no yolks.
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs 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.
From
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
This Mushroom Can Fly
Season 10 Episode 5 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs 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.
From
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipWhat can a single raindrop do?
Send these mysterious eggs on a journey, for one thing.
But these eggs have no yolk inside.
Instead, they hold millions of spores that will spread this curious little mushroom … called a bird’s nest fungus.
Two of them would barely cover your thumbnail.
They grow up on logs or twigs on the forest floor … …or mulch in your backyard.
The spore sacs, known as peridioles, sit patiently in their splash cup, biding their time.
When a raindrop hits the cup, the peridiole hurtles off in milliseconds … … and lands on the ground or a leaf.
Bam!
Pow!
Zap!
As it flies, this peridiole unfurls a cord and with some luck gloms onto a blade of grass.
From the back, you can see how the cord wrapped around.
A sticky bit at the end, called the hapteron, anchors it.
The peridiole doesn’t end up that far from home.
It waits … … dangling from this thin but surprisingly strong cord.
It’s made of thousands of entwined threads called hyphae – that same webby material a fungus grows underground.
Yoo-hoo!
Over here!
A hungry deer nibbles the grass and takes the peridiole with it.
As it wanders, it scatters the spores in its droppings and spreads the fungus to new frontiers.
It’s a slightly undignified journey, propelled by a plop … … and a drop.
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