Toadstool Treasure
I cannot not do it. I must save the toads. This passion first exhibited itself in me as a young child when I discovered toads trapped in the airwalls surrounding our home’s cellar windows. These air wells were made from sheets of aluminum bent in a semi-circle and installed outside below-grade cellar windows. The ones at my parents’ house were about 18 inches deep – deep enough to trap the unlucky toads making their nightly rounds in search of bugs, worms, and slugs to eat. The air wells were too deep for toads to leap out and left to their own they would die, usually from dehydration. Ever since I can remember it was my self-appointed job to save the toads from this type of death.
Even after I moved out, I continued to check the air wells for my warty friends during my numerous weekly visits until my mother sold the homestead decades later.
On a late-summer day during one of these visits I was searching for toads in the leaf litter at the bottom of an air well when I came across this neat little mushroom. I’ve seen photos of these White-Egg Bird’s Nest mushrooms, but it was the first time I saw one in the flesh. It was like buried treasure to me. If it weren’t for saving toads, I would probably have gone through life never seeing one of these mushrooms – something that I’ve probably walked by hundreds of times in the woods or around the house.
The wonders of Nature are often right in front of us to see if only we take the time to slow down and experience the present. And that’s the story of this toadstool treasure.
These are White-Egg Bird’s Nest mushrooms. Each nest, or cup, is about as small as a pencil eraser. As the mushroom matures, the mottled brown covering opens revealing small egg-like parts called peridioles. Each peridiole, which contains thousands of reproductive spores, is the size of a pinhead and is attached to the cup by a thin, sticky tail.
The force of a raindrop splashing in the cup is enough to shoot the peridioles out. As they leave the cup, their tails stretch out several inches before breaking off from the mushroom. The peridioles travel as far as six feet away and attach to anything that their sticky tails touch. Soon each peridiole will break open and release its spores into the world.