{"id":65770,"date":"2020-12-07T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/on-the-trails-when-it-rains-it-spores\/"},"modified":"2020-12-10T17:17:28","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T02:17:28","slug":"on-the-trails-when-it-rains-it-spores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/on-the-trails-when-it-rains-it-spores\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Trails: When it rains, it spores"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mary F. Willson<\/strong><\/ins><\/p>\n

For the Juneau Empire<\/em><\/ins><\/p>\n

Some weeks ago, I wrote about spore dispersal in bird’s nest fungi, in which the mature spores are held in a small cup and when a raindrop falls into the cup, the spores are splashed out. I decided to learn more about what other species use raindrops for dispersal. It turns out that raindrops have been put to work, so to speak, to disperse spores, seeds, little asexual propagules and even sperm.<\/p>\n

[On The Trails: Fund with three fungal curiosities<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n

Splashcups are apparently the most common means of using raindrops. Seed dispersal from splashcups has been reported for many genera of plants, including some that grow in our area: Veronica (brooklime or speedwell), Sedum (stonecrop), Sagina (pearlwort), and Mitella (bishop’s cap). However, I’ve not been able to confirm that our particular species of these genera have this adaptation. Something to look for!<\/p>\n