page_title: Crucibulum
section_title: C. laeve
hierarchical_section_title: Crucibulum / Species / C. laeve
caption_attribution_description: English: The bird's nest fungus Crucibulum laeve (Huds.: Relh) Kambly, photographed in Auckland, New Zealand.
context_page_description: Crucibulum is a genus in the Nidulariaceae, a family of fungi whose fruiting bodies resemble tiny egg-filled bird's nests. Often called "splash cups", the fruiting bodies are adapted for spore dispersal by using the kinetic energy of falling drops of rain. The "eggs" inside the bird's nests are hard waxy shells containing spores, and tend to stick to whatever nearby herbage they land on, thus increasing the odds of being consumed and dispersed by herbivorous animals. Members of this genus are saprobic, obtaining nutrients from dead organic matter, and are typically found growing on decayed wood and wood debris. The three known Crucibulum species are distinguished from other genera of the Nidulariaceae by their relatively simple funiculus – a cord of hyphae that connects the peridiole to the exterior of the bird's nest.
context_section_description: Peridia are 3–7 mm in diameter x 3–8 mm tall, cup-shaped, short and cylindrical with roughly parallel side walls. The tomentose exterior surface is tan to yellow when young and whiter in age. Young specimens have a coarsely tomentose epiphragm (membranous cover) that soon disappears.  The peridioles are 1–2 mm broad, tan to white in color, disc-shaped, and wrinkled when dry. This species grows on material like twigs, lignin-rich vegetable debris, wood chips, old matting, or manure.
  The immature fruiting body of Crucibulum laeve (technically, the peridium), is roughly spherical in shape, but in maturity the base is narrowed slightly relative to the top, so that it appears like a cup, or crucible. The fruiting bodies are usually 5–8 mm tall and almost as wide at the mouth. When young, the mouth is enclosed by a thin membrane called an epiphragm, which is covered with surface hairs. As the fruiting body matures and the fruiting body expands, the epiphragm ruptures, exposing the internal contents. The wall of the fruiting body is made of a single uniform layer of closely interwoven hyphae (the threadlike filaments that form the mycelium) roughly 0.25–0.5 mm thick; this wall structure is in contrast to species from the bird's nest fungus genus Cyathus, which have a distinctly three-layered wall. Young species have a yellowish velvety cover of fine hairs, but this external surface becomes sloughed off and becomes smooth as the fruiting body matures; the color changes to brown, although some old weathered specimens may be bleached grey or dirty white. The inner surface of the fruiting body is smooth and shiny. The cups contain tiny pale ochraceous or white "eggs," technically termed peridioles, usually 1–2 mm in diameter. In each peridiole is a spore-producing layer of tissue, the hymenium. This layer is largely composed of basidia (spore-producing cells) mixed with paraphyses (non-spore producing elements interspersed between basidia). Peridioles are covered by a thin membrane of loosely woven hyphae known as a tunica; separated from the light-colored tunica, the peridioles are black. The peridioles are attached to the inner wall of the peridium by a thin, elastic cord of mycelium, a funiculus, which can be extended at length when moist.
  Crucibulum laeve has spores that are elliptical, hyaline (translucent), and smooth, with dimensions of 7–10 by 4–6 µm.
caption: Close-up of the peridioles of C. laeve
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