I consider myself an amateur naturalist, having an interest in everything I can find growing in the forest, meadows and coastal areas. That’s quite a stretch for a Pennsylvania woman from the coal mining region, but it doesn’t matter in which part of the country or city I happen to be, I can always find wildflowers, trees, butterflies, birds, insects and mysterious mushrooms which pique my interest and make me want to keep walking and discovering what lies along the next path. Curiosity is a gift.

In May, I read an article in the New York Times about the Mycological Society of NYC which was fascinating. The members of this organization plan walks into all 5 boroughs, some unplanned (called a pop-up walks) when the weather is likely to produce lots of fungi. Other explorations are scheduled in advance and added to the calendar. Rain or shine they never miss an opportunity to discover what mushrooms lie hidden in this great city of ours. It sounded interesting so I joined their organization ($20/year) and signed up for the first pop-up-walk they scheduled. It happened to be in Forest Park which was very convenient for me since I live in Forest Hills and love walking the trails which meander through the forest.

We met by the Overlook, the Queens Department of Parks and Recreation building, and I must say everyone was relaxed and curious. The leaders of the walk distributed magnifiers on a lariat to each participant which we used to explore the spores and the complex inner workings of found fungi.

Within 5 minutes of meeting we were finding mushrooms, in the recently cut grass of all places by the Job statue. How about Dead Man’s Fingers and Stinkhorn Mushrooms to begin the day? My $20 was already well spent! The mushroom explorers were wonderful – there were long hairs, short hairs, old, young, financial wizards, artists, and, best of all, scientists, and just regular folk like me.

Immediately upon finding a mushroom someone would call out the scientific name which was quite impressive, but I had to request they translate to the common name. Newbies need extra help and that’s just what everyone offered. They were the most welcoming group of people I have ever been with and I can’t wait to join another walk. Come along. You’ll be glad you did. Newyorkmyc.org