Tiny Fungi

While installing the second gate I noticed a twig with some fungi just starting to appear, and made a mental note to check back after we returned from our adventures in Ohio and West Virginia.

And today I did just that. And as I had suspected, it was bird nest fungi.

I believe White-egg Bird's Nest Fungi, or for Latin aficionados, Crucibulum laeve.

My favorite bit from the linked site:

"The most edible part of this mushroom is probably the eggs before they mature, but you'd need to garter a staggering number of peridioles just for a taste. Of course, nobody knows whether C. laeve is poisonous since nobody has ever bothered to eat enough of the mushrooms."

That would be one tiny omelet.

This is only the second time I've seen it, both times in the yard. It is a small fungi, that's a US 25¢ cent piece for scale. Which is no doubt why they so often go unnoticed.

We've plenty of downed branches in the yard and surrounding woods, so there's probably plenty out there to find. I'll just need to keep looking down.