Description
Cyathus olla bears a resemblance to a miniature bird's nest containing eggs, hence the common name bird's nest fungi. The fruiting body, or peridium, is roughly funnel-shaped, 10–18 mm tall and 8–12 mm wide. It is greyish yellow or greyish brown to fawn-colored and covered with even, fine-textured hairs on the outside surface. The inner surface is silver grey and smooth, often with faint transverse ridges. Cyathus olla is thick-walled, and flared outwards at the rim; the rim is typically wavy in outline. The 'eggs', or peridioles, typically number 8 to 10 in the cup, and they are white or grey in color, with a diameter of 2–4 mm—conspicuously larger than other Cyathus species. They are covered with a thin membrane called a tunica. Peridioles are often attached to the fruiting body by a funiculus, a structure of hyphae that is differentiated into three regions: the basal piece, which attaches it to the inner wall of the peridium, the middle piece, and an upper sheath, called the purse, connected to the lower surface of the peridiole. Inside the purse and middle piece is a coiled thread of interwoven hyphae called the funicular cord, attached at one end to the peridiole and at the other end to an entangled mass of hyphae called the hapteron. C. olla has a wide purse with an upper portion not easily distinguishable from the lower part.
A different form of this species, Cyathus olla forma anglicus, originally reported from England by mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd, has also been found in Oregon and Colorado in the USA, Alberta Canada, and in Argentina. This form is large, with cup openings up to 1.5 cm (0.6 in) in diameter. Spores have dimensions of 11.5–12.5 × 7.5–9 µm.
The related species Cyathus earlei Lloyd closely resembles C. olla, although mating analysis has shown that they are distinct species.
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)