Flute Birds Nest or Splash Cups

fam. nidulariaceae.--- genus Cyathus -- and almost surely species stratius . look/ compare this spotting with yours --> ( http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/7497278 )- they have almost the same colors ( maybe influenced from the light, light brown the young ones and dark-b. to black the older). fresh open ones are whitish-silver inside/older darkend to brown. the inside is horizontally divided. the edge of the open are black. the outside-surface hairy/spikey. the eggs are first skin/silk/cream and by older ones are darkend grey/brown/black. - here what i found to determinate/identify them. : "C. striatus can be distinguished from most other bird's nest fungi by its hairy exterior and grooved (striated) inner walls"- when you have a question about it, just ask!

There is a whole family of cup fungi (the Nidulariaceae:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidulariaceae), so these probably are a different species than C. striatus. Craig is right about the little discs - they are essentially spore packets which splash out of the cups when rained on, and then the spores germinate where they land. Some of the little packets even have a cord attaching them to the cup so that when they splash out they can wrap around sticks or other nearby debris and the spores can germinate there. Very neat little fungi.

Wiki says they are only distributed in temperate regions, so this might not be the same species you saw in Thailand. Though it is probably what Craig saw.

Thanks for posting this. I saw these strange fruiting bodies quite a bit back at the end of August in woody mulch at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew & really wanted to find out what they are. They seem very peculiar for fungi as the little discs that pop out when rain splashed are more like seeds than spores.