'Never seen this before': Homeowner shares photo after digging up fungus in garden

For those new to gardening, discovering something unfamiliar in your soil can be intriguing, or a little bit scary.

One homeowner who shared an unusual sight to the r/whatisthisbug subreddit.

"Pulling some weeds in my garden and found this clump with all of these things on it," they wrote. "There's a lot more of them in the garden."

The item on display was truly weird. It consisted of bulb-shaped items with features that almost looked like little pebbles inside.

"Never seen this before and I'm not even sure if it's a bug," the OP added while noting they were in Central Colorado.

Redditors were quick to ID the mystery item as not a bug, but rather bird's nest fungus. That's not bad news at all for the OP. 

One user called it their "favorite," and another praised it for being "cool looking."

It's not just their striking looks that make them a positive sight in your garden. As Garden Betty notes, these little fungi are very good decomposers and can help clean up wood and plant debris, which will eventually aid your soil. 

The bird's nest fungus disperses spores through tiny eggs called peridioles. These are launched by water drops, allowing the spores to mature. 

Maybe best of all for the OP, bird's nest fungus has no negative impacts on humans, wildlife, nor living plants. Fortunately the community made that clear to them when they followed up.

They asked: "So these are ok to have in our veggie garden it seems?"

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"I mean don't go deliberately eating them, but there's no harm from them just being there (and quite the opposite)," a Redditor advised. 

While it doesn't seem it's proven that they are inedible, Garden Betty revealed that the 1910 edition of Minnesota Plant Studies described them as "not edible owing to their leathery texture."

So, this might be an oddity that's best to just look at and leave alone as it helps your yard flourish.

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