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White-egg birds nest fungus

Crucibulum laeve

Description:

I have NO idea what this is, not even sure if it belongs in the arthropod category or not. I found about 10 of these TINY, round, nest-like shells growing/attached to the dead stems of White Loose Strife (5th picture is of the White Loose Strife patch that's gone to seed where I found these things). Each of the "shells" had about 3 small, creamy-white eggs or seeds sticking inside of them. Ball point pen is for size reference.

Habitat:

Found attached to dead stems of White Loose Strife flowers, on the flower bed of the patch of strife.

Notes:

Does anyone know what these are?

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5 Comments

SarahWhitt
SarahWhitt 12 years ago

Those are exactly like the ones I found, Dan! Thanks for the info!!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

No problem, Mostly Microbe.
Sarah, the ones I have seen growing on mulch have looked like this species. I don't have a spotting of them but I did research them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyathus_str...

SarahWhitt
SarahWhitt 12 years ago

They are so interesting!! Just saw some, for the first time, littering my garden, growing on the mulch. They are soooo tiny!!

Mostly Microbe
Mostly Microbe 12 years ago

BINGO! Thank you dandoucette! I will correct the category to reflect its fungal nature!

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

This is a bird's nest type fungi. Check out this.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/723...

Mostly Microbe
Spotted by
Mostly Microbe

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Spotted on Oct 1, 2011
Submitted on Oct 3, 2011

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