Cyathus striatus group

These are Birds nest fungi. The fruit body is somewhat like an upside-down cone, tapers towards the base and the inner wall is distinctly plicate or ridged lengthwise. When immature the mouth of the cone is covered by a membrane (the epiphragm). At maturity the epiphragm breaks to leave the mouth open and reveal the ‘eggs’ (or peridioles) within the cone. Spores are produced within the peridioles. A cord (the funiculus) connects a peridiole to the inner wall of the fruit body. H.J. Brodie (The Bird’s Nest Fungi, University of Toronto Press, 1975) divided the species of Cyathus into seven groups, the lengthwise plicate/ridged species placed in either the poeppigii group or the striatus group. In the former the fruit bodies are distinctly plicate both internally and externally and the spores are very large. In the latter the fruit bodies are sometimes faintly plicate externally but the spores are much smaller. The following two species of the striatus group have been reported from Australia.

Cyathus novae-zeelandiae (you may also see the spelling zelandiae)

Fruit body 8-14  x  5-7 mm; outer surface dark brown with a covering of matted hairs; darkish interior. Peridioles black. Spores generally elliptical but sometimes ovoid 8-14 x 5-8 mm. The original published description of 1844 was based on specimens collected from rotten wood on the Banks peninsula in New Zealand. This species has also been reported from Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica, India and China.

Cyathus striatus

Fruit body 7-10 x 6-8 mm; outer surface grey buff to deep chocolate brown and shaggy or woolly; pale interior. The epiphragm may break off whole and remain nearby. Peridioles brownish grey to dark grey. In Cyathus striatus the peridiole has a covering layer (or tunica) that is pale and thick. A tunica is also  present in Cyathus novae-zeelandiae but is very thin and the inherent blackness of that species’ peridioles dominates. Spores elliptical 18-20 x 8-10 mm. A cosmopolitan species.  

The following member of the poeppigii group has been reported from Australia:   

Cyathus poeppigii

Fruit body 6-8 x 5-7 mm;  exterior reddish brown to dark brown and shaggy; interior brownish. Peridioles black and shiny (no tunica in this species). Spores elliptical to ovoid, 25-47 x 15-28 mm. Widespread in the tropical areas of world (and there are specimens from Brisbane, Kuranda and Sydney in Australian herbaria) so it seems unlikely to appear in the Canberra region

Notes

1. Macroscopic features may change with age or weathering and species’ descriptions show some variation, so a reliable identification may require a study of the spores.

2. Little has been written about Cyathus novae-zeelandiae, so I was gratified to see a modern study of the type material in: R.H.S. F. Cruz (2017) Revisão Morfológica e Molecular do Gênero Cyathus Haller (Nidulariaceae, Agaricales, Basidiomycota), Doctoral thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal.

3. Brodie based his groups on “apparent similarity” (his italics) and said these need not show phylogenetic relationships. That is the case and for more on this see: R.-L. Zhao et al. (2007) Ribosomal DNA phylogenies of Cyathus: Is the current infrageneric classification appropriate? Mycologia, 99, 385-395.