Cyathus sp.

A Bird's Nest Fungus at Ainslie, ACT

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Identification history

Cyathus sp.	22 Mar 2016	MichaelBedingfield
Cyathus sp.	18 Mar 2016	KenT
Unverified	14 Mar 2016	ShaneBreynard

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5 comments

NathanaelC wrote:

15 Mar 2016

Has that area been burnt? Looks blackened. Whatever those things are (and I can't even begin to guess) does it appear they've been opened or exposed by fire or mechanically?

CathB wrote:

19 Mar 2016

Looks like a bird's nest fungus, a species of Nidula.

KenT wrote:

19 Mar 2016

I think CathB is right about about it being one of the bird's nest fungi. The last worldwide monograph on this group seems to be by Brodie (1975), (The Bird's Nest Fungi. Toronto: University of Toronto Press) with a supplement published elsewhere in 1984. More species have been described since then. With the absence of striations and the presence and type of hairs It looks like Cyathus stercoreus, a species with worldwide distribution but I've not seen enough of these to make any more then a guess as to species.

Heino wrote:

22 Mar 2016

This is a species of Cyathus, quite likely stercoreus as KenT says. They haven't been burnt and the initial covering membrane disappears naturally to expose the 'eggs'. Each egg contains numerous spores (and other tissue), within a hard coat. Here (http://www.cpbr.gov.au/fungi/birds-nest-cannonball.html) you can read about the splash dispersal of those eggs. Here (http://www.cpbr.gov.au/fungi/images-captions/cyathus-peridioles-0252.html) you see three eggs in which I have carefully teased out the cords that are initially compressed into the hollow you see in the photo. Bird's nest fungi are frequent enough in Canberra (especially C. stercoreus), but easily overlooked because of their small size, more so if only a few have appeared, but you can get quite large colonies, densely packed.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

23 Mar 2016

Hi Shane, and thank you for this contribution. It is our first sighting of this genus on CNM.

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Location information

Coordinates 149.145400 -35.263200
Altitude 606.6m
Places Ainslie, ACT

Sighting information

16 - 100 Abundance
14 Mar 2016 12:38 PM Recorded on
ShaneBreynard Recorded by
Collections
ShaneBreynard Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Cup with one or more 'eggs' inside [birds nest fungi and cannonball fungus] Disk-like to cup-like Fungi Cyathus sp.

Additional information

True In flower

Species information

Cyathus sp. Scientific name
A Bird's Nest Fungus Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 786.6m Recorded at altitude

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes