This Mushroom Can Fly | Deep Look

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.

SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! https://www.youtube.com/user/kqeddeep...
Please join our community on Patreon!   / deeplook  

DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.

---

The spore sacs, known as peridioles, sit in their splash cup, biding their time. When a raindrop hits the cup, a peridiole hurtles off in milliseconds.

As it flies, the peridiole unfurls a cord and sometimes attaches to a blade of grass. When a hungry herbivore, such as a deer, eats the grass, it spreads the fungus’s spores in its droppings.

--- How big are bird’s nest fungi?

A couple of bird’s nest fungi would fit on your thumbnail. Their splash cups are about 10 millimeters in diameter. An individual peridiole can be just 1 millimeter wide.

--- How far do bird’s nest fungi travel?

Experiments carried out by Miami University mycologist Nik Money and then graduate student Maribeth Hassett in 2012 found that when a raindrop falls on a bird’s nest fungus and sends a peridiole flying, it can land somewhere between a few centimeters and a bit over a meter away. How far it travels varies, depending on the bird’s nest fungi species.

Money hypothesizes that herbivores such as deer eat blades of grass onto which peridioles have attached. He believes the fungus’s spores then travel inside the deer until the animal deposits them on the ground in its droppings.

--- Are bird’s nest fungi edible?

They’re not known to be poisonous, but they’re so small, it’s probably not worth the attempt to eat them.

---+ Find a transcript on KQED Science:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1981958/...

---+ More Great Deep Look episodes:

This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It
   • This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before Yo...  

This Killer Fungus Turns Flies Into Zombies
   • This Killer Fungus Turns Flies into Zombie...  

This Mushroom Fakes Its Own Death to Trick Flies
   • This Mushroom Fakes Its Own Death To Trick...  


---+ Shoutout!

🏆Congratulations🏆 to these fans on our Deep Look Community Tab who correctly answered our GIF challenge!

Kamea Webster

The answers were "peridioles" and "splash dispersal."    / @kqeddeeplook  

---+ Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10+ per month)!

Burt Humburg
Karen Reynolds
Daisuke Goto
Companion Cube
David Deshpande
Chris B Emrick
Tianxing Wang
Wade Tregaskis
Mark Jobes
Blanca Vides
Kevin Judge
Cindy McGill
Laurel Przybylski
Supernovabetty
monoirre
Titania Juang
Roberta K Wright
KW
Syniurge
El Samuels
Carrie Mukaida
Jessica Hiraoka
Cristen Rasmussen
Jellyman
Mehdi
Kelly Hong
Noreen Herrington
Laurel Przybylski
SueEllen McCann
Caitlin McDonough
Louis O'Neill
Nicolette Ray
Jeremiah Sullivan
Levi Cai
TierZoo
Elizabeth Ann Ditz
Rory B.


---+ Follow Deep Look and KQED Science on social:
  / deeplookofficial  
  / deeplook  
Instagram:   / kqedscience  
Twitter:   / kqedscience  

---+ About KQED
KQED, an NPR and PBS member station in San Francisco serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media.

Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the members of KQED.

#birdsnestfungi #deeplook