Introduction: Rain and foray dates, areas searched, methods used; comparisons with other areas
Checklist sorted by Habitat/Substrate
Examples of population flow in 7 mushrooms
The month of July is usually very dry in the New York City area. This year we had over 6” of rain in Central Park. Not only that, but the rain was nicely distributed so that we had measurable to hard rain on July 2, 5, 6, 13, 18, 21, 23, and 28.
I made 19 forays into the park specifically to look for mushrooms. [These were on July 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31.] The importance of these dates has to do with the rainfall during July. I wanted to go before, during and after downpours to see how long it takes different mushrooms to appear and disappear.
Gene Yetter and Aaron Noravian also came to the park to look for mushrooms. Together, we found more than 50 different kinds of fleshy mushrooms (gilled mushrooms, boletes and puffballs) during July. On no day when the park was searched did we not find some fleshy mushrooms!
The incentive for this effort came about thanks to the 2006 Central Park Bio-Blitz, an event that was held in the 24 hours between noon, June 23 and noon, June 24. This event was sponsored by the Explorer’s Club, the E.O. Wilson Foundation, and the Central Park Conservancy. We extended the hunt for mushrooms by a week, and then a month, because we know that mushrooms, unlike trees and birds, only appear when the conditions are right. We wanted to see what would appear after, even well after, the official end of the 24 hour Bio-Blitz. What we discovered was that the Bio-Blitz produced about 40 different mushrooms of all kinds, while the following month of our collecting produced a total of more than 120 different mushrooms.
Although 50 fleshy mushrooms for July in Central Park sounds very good to me, it is important to remember that any single day of collecting in the woods north of the city, like our mushroom walk on July 22 along the Stony Brook Trail in Harriman State Park produced more species (80+) than an entire month of collecting in Central Park! That said, though, we can now look at Central Park to see what is special in the park and what else we can learn about the park’s mushrooms. Because I live less than 5 walking minutes from the park, it’s possible to get to areas in the park nearly every day. Sometimes it’s very early in the morning or near dusk. The biggest detriment to collecting in the park is the reality that it is a big city park. There are crews always removing fallen woody debris (a good substrate for mushrooms), mowing the grassy areas, and otherwise manicuring the park. In addition, camp groups come to the park to play, and they play on mushroom sites, leaving the areas bare even of grass when they leave. An additional difficulty is that mushrooms coming up in grassy areas shaded by trees, or in wood chip mulch, can be extraordinarily difficult to see. In many cases you have to stand still and just stare at the ground, especially for mushrooms that are hidden by grasses or are the color of the wood chip mulch.
The areas covered on a nearly daily basis during July include everything along or near the bridle path on the west side of the park from 86th Street (the southern end of the Central Park Reservoir) to 102nd [the northern end of the Central Park Pool and Loch (where the waterfalls are)]. A checklist is one way to represent what was found, and this is a good way to learn about what came up during July.
Another way is to track a few of the mushrooms as they appeared and disappeared during the month. A question I had at the beginning was what kinds of patterns, if any, would be revealed by a systematic search for mushrooms in this very small area of the park. Other questions that presented themselves as the work proceeded were (1) how does this area differ from other areas in Central Park, (2) how does this area differ from other parks in New York City, (3) how does this area differ from woodsy areas outside the city, such as Harriman State Park. Comparing the area searched with other areas in the park, it seems that it was the best area I could have chosen. Even the Ramble was disappointing compared to the area I chose along the bridle path. Comparing the area with other parks in the city, well, on the NYMS walk in Van Cortlandt Park on July 16th, the diversity of mushrooms was different but the species count was about the same for a given day, about 35. Comparing the area with areas outside the city, Harriman State Park, because it is a densely wooded natural area, produced much more abundance and species diversity on the day of our mushroom walk there (July 22nd), but it should be pointed out that the same walk along the Stony Brook Trail which we did last year on the same weekend in July produced almost exactly the same checklist for the Stony Brook Trail as this July’s walk, the only difference being that this year, with the same species recorded, there was a greater abundance of mushrooms.
Polypores:
Laetiporus cincinatus
Boletes:
Gilled Mushrooms:
Tubaria furfuracea
Pluteus cervinus
The best edible mushroom found was a polypore, the chicken mushroom that grows on the ground at the base of trees: Laetiporus cincinnatus. Other good edibles included oyster mushrooms and a couple of different boletes.
A glance at the July checklist for Central Park reveals that just one genus, Russula, accounts for 25% of all the mushrooms found. The checklist also shows, by their absence, that few boletes were found. In the woods in Harriman State Park, by comparison, there can be a great many boletes as well as Russulas.
A glance at the July checklist for Central Park sorted by habitat or substrate reveals that wood chip mulch is as good an area for finding mushrooms as any in the park; even when grassy areas and open, grassy tree shaded areas dry out the wood chip areas are still holding rainwater moisture.
Grass
Conocybe lacteaOn wood: trees, stumps, branches, or on buried wood:
Coprinus spp.Sorted by Habitat/Substrate:
1. Grass (the place to look immediately after rain):
Conocybe lactea appeared in grassy areas on July 6, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, and 26. Because these mushrooms collapse by noon, these are fresh populations that are springing up. By comparing these appearances with rainfall during July, we see that it rained on the 5th & 6th, and then not again until the 13th. It next rained on the 18th, 21st, and 23rd, with fresh Conocybe lactea coming up daily. The intense but very brief downpour on the 28th either failed to bring up fresh Conocybe or I missed them.
2. Bare Soil (a
one mushroom substrate: Agaricus bitorquis)
3. On the ground
in grassy Oak tree woodlands (a good place
to look for mushrooms during a rainy period and for several days
afterwards,
depending on how hot it gets)
4. Wood chip mulch (the most reliable mushroom habitat in the park. The wood chip mulch absorbs rainwater and mushrooms keep coming up, including mushrooms we associate with trees like oaks)
Collybia luxurians is the surprise mushroom of the month in Central Park. Not the rarest (which may be Calvatia rubroflava), or the most beautiful (which may be some of the red Russulas), or the most bizarre, which is the stinkhorn Phallus rubicundus, but the most surprising discovery. It can look like a Collybia dryophila or Collybia subnuda. It grows in clusters, often with large, floppy caps. It occurs in nearly every wood chip mulch area that I’ve examined. It has a reddish brown to tan cap that often curves up in age. The gills are white to off-white and attached to the stipe. The stipe appears twisted or has twisted fibrils running its length. It was first seen in Central Park on June 30th and it has continued to put up fresh fruitbodies in one wood chip mulch area or another throughout July. It can be as small as Collybia dryophila, and it can appear on the ground (perhaps on buried wood) in the grassy tree-shaded areas of the park. It is most conspicuous in the wood chip mulch areas between 96th St. and 99th just west of the Central Park Drive.