Sighting 2726664
Cyathus sp.
A Bird's Nest Fungus at Ainslie, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Cyathus sp. | MichaelBedingfield | 22 Mar 2016 | |
| Cyathus sp. | KenT | 18 Mar 2016 | |
| Unverified | ShaneBreynard | 14 Mar 2016 |
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5 comments
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?
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.
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.
23 Mar 2016
Hi Shane, and thank you for this contribution. It is our first sighting of this genus on CNM.
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
- Yes In flower
Collections
- ShaneBreynard Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Cyathus sp. Cup with one or more 'eggs' inside [birds nest fungi and cannonball fungus] Disk-like to cup-like Fungi
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
Quality score
3 / 7
- Images or audio
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Additional attributes
- More than one media file
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description