Bird's Nest Fungus, Nidula Niveotomentosa

Day 76: I had gone out intending only to make a short hike around the nature trail at Longmire (Mt. Rainier National Park), but when that was done, I didn't feel I had a photo which would qualify for today's post, so I pulled off at the Kautz Creek parking area and put on my gaiters. A mile would get me to the creek crossing and surely I'd find something there, if not on the way.

I had gone only a hundred yards or so down the trail when I encountered the first of many large deadfalls, victims of last week's violent windstorm. Navigating through them or around them in thick, young forest was not easy and I nearly gave the project up as more trouble than it was worth. In a tenth of a mile or so, I'd worked through it and had a clear path almost to the creek crossing. There, I climbed over one last fallen tree, still no satisfactory image in the camera. Over the slick log bridges I went, hoping for an interesting ice formation, but nothing caught my eye. After climbing partway up the hill on the far side, I decided I'd have to find something closer to home.

As I was ascending through the snow-covered boulders lining the deeply entrenched stream channel, I spotted this teeny-tiny Bird's Nest Fungus at eye level, growing on the side of a long-dead log. At the end of the log was a cluster of five or six more, not yet open. Bird's Nest resembles pencil-eraser sized puffballs before the "lids" burst to reveal the "eggs" inside. What you see here is a fully mature specimen with its cargo of peridioles which in turn hold the spores of the species. If you look closely at the log beside the nest, you can see an egg. This fungus relies on rain to wash the "eggs" out of the cup. In this species, the eggs are attached to the cup by a thread of tissue (below).

And to think I might have turned around at the first sign of deadfall obstructing the trail! Such a tiny treasure, this, and well worth a walk in knee-deep snow.