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Species Information
Summary: {See also Common Bird''s Nests Table.} Features include small size; slender mug shape with mouth turned out and white-fringed; white velvety-tomentose exterior which may become darker or smoother; shiny gold to gold-brown smooth interior; numerous small reddish brown eggs in a gelatinous matrix without a cord; and growth on bracken ferns, sticks, or canes, often among moss.
Nidula niveotomentosa is abundant in western North America from BC south as far as CA, and also occurs in Jamaica, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Japan, New Zealand, (Brodie). It occurs also in WA and MT (White), and is common in OR (L. Norvell, pers. comm.).
Nest: young fruitbodies (mostly 0.4-0.6cm high) open widely, the sides of the fruitbody almost parallel in its lower part, with mouth of cup surrounded by a white fringe, (Brodie), up to 0.6cm across and 0.6cm high, "small white woolly cylinders at first, snow-white furry cups later"; with a white cover at first (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), with a slight flare at the top, 0.5cm across at the mouth, 0.4-0.6cm high, shaped like a slender mug, (Fay)
Outer Surface: snowy-white and shaggy when young, older fruitbodies at times tinged with yellow and brown, sometimes becoming thin and smooth, (Brodie), white to pale buff, finely velvety-tomentose, (Fay)
Inner Surface: smooth (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), shiny gold to gold-brown, (Fay)
Microscopic: spores 6-9 x 5-6 microns, elliptic to nearly round, (Brodie)
Habitat / Range
usually on sticks or in moss, (Arora), often seen growing among mosses, in BC grows invariably in close association with bracken fern, (Brodie), on old wood, bracken, berry canes, (Fay)
Similar Species
Nidula candida has a larger fruitbody (0.8-1.5cm high), rougher and more shaggy exterior which when fresh is gray in color or even light wood-brown, and larger eggs 0.15-0.3cm across, (Brodie). N. candida is like a flower pot, 1-1.5cm high, covered by gray or gray-brown shaggy tomentum, whereas N. niveotomentosa is like a slender mug, 0.4-0.6cm high, covered with whitish velvety tomentum, (Fay).
