The fruiting bodies are referred to as splash cups, because they are developed to use the force of falling drops of water to dislodge and disperse their spores.

[7] The spores are sessile (growing directly from the surface of the basidium, without attachment via a sterigmata), and are separated from the basidia after it collapses and gelatinizes.

It has been proposed that these skeletal hyphae form a structural network that helps the fruiting body maintain the elasticity vital for proper functioning of the spore dispersal mechanism.

[6] The life cycle of Cyathus stercoreus, which contains both haploid and diploid stages, is typical of taxa in the basidiomycetes that can reproduce both asexually (via vegetative spores), or sexually (with meiosis).

When two homokaryotic hyphae of different mating compatibility groups fuse with one another, they form a dikaryotic (containing two nuclei) mycelia in a process called plasmogamy.

After a period of time (approximately 40 days when grown from pure culture in the laboratory)[9] and under the appropriate environmental conditions, fruiting bodies may be formed from the dikaryotic mycelia.

[13] Lu suggests that certain growing conditions – such as a shortage in available nutrients – shifts the fungus' metabolism to produce a hypothetical "photoreceptive precursor" that enables the growth of the fruiting bodies to be stimulated and affected by light.

The peridioles, followed by the highly adhesive funicular cord and basal hapteron, may hit a nearby plant stem or stick.

[21] Cyathus stercoreus has been investigated for its ability to break down lignin and cellulose in agricultural byproducts, like wheat straw or grasses.

[22][23][24] It selectively breaks down lignin, leaving much of the cellulose intact, which increases the amount of digestible carbohydrate for ruminant mammals, and enhances both its value as a food source and its biodegradability.