Basidiomycota > Class Agaricomycetes > Order Agaricales > Family Nidulariaceae.
Fruiting bodies, scattered or in groups are found on decomposing wood, wood chips and mulch.
The ‘bird’s nest’.
The peridium is the wall of the fruiting body or cup which contains the spore containing peridioles (‘eggs’).
The peridium, from 0.5 to 18 mm high is shaped like a cup, urn, vase, barrel etc.
The walls generally have a 70° slope but they may be straighter and the rim may flare out.
The inside is smooth and shiny and may be dark or light in colour and grooved or striated.
The outside is covered with hair-like structures which may be velvety, shaggy or spiky.
The hairs can be brown, yellowish, white, grey or pink.
Hairs may wear off with age and the colour of the cup changes.
In young peridia the cup is covered in a thin membrane.
The ‘eggs’.
There may be one or several peridioles in each cup.
In many species they are attached to the cup by a cord or funiculus but they can be free and lie in a jelly-like material.
In species with a cord tethering the peridioles it may be simple or complex in structure.
It sometimes withers with age.
The ‘eggs’ are typically disc-shaped, 1-3 mm in diameter.
They have a hard coat and are filled with a mass of spores in glebal tissue.
They may be black, brown, yellow-brown or reddish-brown.
Some species are covered in a white membrane which disappears with age.
Peridioles are mainly dispersed by rain drops splashing them out of the cups.
They can travel up to a metre and stick to any vegetation they touch.
In some species the cord stretches and becomes entangled in vegetation.
Herbivores swallow the peridioles and the spores develop in their droppings.
There are 5 genera – Crucibulum, Cyathus, Mycocalia, Nidula and Nidularia.
These have nearly 70 species with over half in the genus Cyathus.
Examination of the spores is usually needed to separate the species.
A few helpful features are:
- Crucibulum have only 1 layer in the cup wall, have a cord and the peridioles are black with a white coating.
- Cyathus have a three-layered wall, a complex cord and black peridioles.
- Myocalia have yellow-brown or red-brown peridioles.
- Nidula cups have straighter sides, no cord and brown peridioles.
- Nidularia have the smallest cups with spiky hairs and hold up to 100 brown peridioles.
There are variations within each genus and the above are only generalisations.
J.F.
