Formless nest (Nidularia deformis)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Agaricaceae (Champignon)
- Genus: Nidularia (Nest)
- Species: Nidularia deformis (Formless nest)
Synonyms :
Cyathus farctus
- Cyathus deformis
- Cyathus globosus
- Cyathodes deforme
- Granularia pisiformis
- Nidularia confluens
- Nidularia australis
- Nidularia microspora
- Nidularia farcta
Description
Formless nest usually grows in large clusters. Its fruiting bodies resemble miniature raincoats. They are no more than 1 cm in diameter; sedentary, at first smooth, with age their surface becomes rough, as if "frosty"; whitish, beige or brownish. Solitary specimens are round or pear-shaped, growing in close groups are somewhat flattened laterally.
Peridium (outer shell) consists of a thin, dense wall and a looser, “felt” layer adjacent to it. Inside it, in a brownish slimy matrix, there are lenticular peridioles with a diameter of 1-2 mm. They are located freely without attaching to the peridium wall. At first, they are light, as they mature, they become yellowish brown.
Spores from ripe fruit bodies spread during rain. From the blows of raindrops, a thin fragile peridium is torn, and the peridioles are scattered in different directions.
Subsequently, the peridiol membrane is destroyed, and spores are released from them. The spores are smooth, hyaline, elliptical, 6–9 x 5–6 µm.
Ecology and distribution
The nest is formless - saprophyte; it grows on decaying deciduous and coniferous wood. She is satisfied with dead trunks and twigs, wood chips and sawdust, old boards, as well as coniferous litter. She can be found in timber yards. The period of active growth from July to late autumn, in a mild climate, it can be found even in December.
Edibility
No data on edibility.
Notes :
The first meeting with this mushroom was so memorable! What is this wonderful miracle, wondrous miracle? The scene is a mixed coniferous forest and a site near a forest road, where a pile of logs lay for some time. Then the logs were taken away, there was some chips, bark and in some places a decent amount of sawdust. It is on this bark and sawdust that it grows, light-colored, somewhat reminiscent of a lycogala - if we ignore the color - or a micro-raincoat - and then the surface breaks, and inside there is something slimy, and the filling is like glasses. At the same time, the glass itself - hard, clear-cut - is absent. The design is revealed, how it goes.