Monday Mushrooms, on Tuesday. #9

PLEASE NOTE: This post is intended for sharing fun and interesting facts on mushrooms. It is NOT INTENDED to be used as a guide for identifying edible mushrooms!

Hello everyone! Today we will take a quick look at a couple of odd mushrooms. Well, they are fungi anyway, though many people wouldn’t recognize them as mushrooms. One is a cup fungus and the other is a Bird’s Nest fungus. Basically both are somewhat cup shaped, though the cup fungus is much larger. The one in my photo is about 2 inches (5cm) across.

The Bird’s Nest fungus is much smaller at about half an inch (12mm) or smaller, with tiny “eggs” inside that carry the spores. The “eggs” are not always present however. On young specimens there is a lid, or dome like structure on top which falls away over time as it matures, revealing the “eggs” inside. The “eggs” are tiny, only about 1/16 inch (about 1.5mm) in size, or less.

White-egg Bird’s Nest Fungus

There can be 2 or more of these “eggs” in the cup. Although very cool to find and look at, they are INEDIBLE, but are great for photography purposes! Unfortunately, I didn’t find any with “eggs” still inside. But, I didn’t check a very large area for them either. They can be found from late spring through to fall.

Spreading Cup Fungus with small Bird’s Nest Fungus on the upper right of it.

The cup fungus is the Spreading Cup and the one in my photo is a fairly young specimen. Mature specimens are flatter and darker in color. They are found growing on wood, mine is on a very rotten log. This cup fungus is also INEDIBLE. The cup fungus is found from late spring through summer.

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at these amazing little fungi today. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.