Mushroom identification

[theonew]

Found this today in Van Cortlandt Park. It was growing on some dead wood.
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to its identity?

 

[richard j]

it could be a form of oyster mushroom but its hard to tell. most oyster mushrooms have a smell like a morel. i would not eat that one since its hard to tell exactly what it is. there are several good books to help identify mushrooms. maybe your library has a few.

 

[theonew]

I was thinking a not very fresh Oyster mushroom too. Doesn't match the pictures I've seen close enough to make me want to eat it, that's for sure.

 

[pitdog]

Looks like Clouded Agaric to me !

 

[RescueRiley]

Theo, Ever go on a steve brill Walk?? He's the metro expert on wild plants and does guided walks through most of the city parks...He's a bit flaky but ridiculously knowledgable. I don't do mushrooms (too risky) at this poijnt as I am not educated enough about them.

 

[theonew]

Theo, Ever go on a steve brill Walk?? He's the metro expert on wild plants and does guided walks through most of the city parks...He's a bit flaky but ridiculously knowledgable. I don't do mushrooms (too risky) at this poijnt as I am not educated enough about them.

I've been on a few and agree completely with your assessment. I was thinking about emailing him these pics. I did find an oyster mushroom on one of his tours last year and this one sure looks "close"

 

[myright]

That is a great picture. I wish I knew more about mushrooms, it would be nice to be able to identify plants by site and know which ones are good to eat.


I was going to post a picture as a joke, but I came across this picture and needed to post it. Do you think this thing is real?

 

[Esav Benyamin]

It's real. That elf is VERY short.

But you never know who you're going to meet in Van Cortlandt. I used to ride the Woodlawn/Jerome up from 86th & Lexington, walk across the park, up to the Yonkers border, down the trail by the old tracks to the golf clubhouse, and back to Manhattan by the Broadway line.

One time I came across one of those old picnic tables that had been overgrown by weeds and bushes, and saw that someone had been sacrificing chickens on it.

Oops ... go hiking somewhere else ... fast.

 

[theonew]

One time I came across one of those old picnic tables that had been overgrown by weeds and bushes, and saw that someone had been sacrificing chickens on it.

Oops ... go hiking somewhere else ... fast.

Yikes
I got ticketed for having my dog off-leash there today :grumpy:

myright, I don't see how that mushroom could be real but its a funny picture

 

[myright]

Yikes
I got ticketed for having my dog off-leash there today :grumpy:

myright, I don't see how that mushroom could be real but its a funny picture

Someone actually writes tickets for that ? :jerkit:

 

[theonew]

Someone actually writes tickets for that ? :jerkit:

Only the park rangers, I've left my dog off-leash outside of stores, while I went in to get something, with a police cruiser parked in front and the only thing they've ever said was, "Cute dog".

 

[myright]

Oh well, bring him to the PA gathering and he can hunt some Mushrooms for us!

 

[Swoop]

I have had some run ins with the NYC Park Rangers. Most of them are paper pushers in Ranger uniforms. They had a problem with "Disabled Parking " at the Salt Marsh in Bklyn., so instead of ticketing the illegal parkers they just changed all the spaces for disabled to park personnel and threatened to ticket people with disabled permits for parking there. Someone may have complained because there is one spot now available where there were at least three before.

A Ranger guiding inner city kids was overheard telling them that the birds they heard were singing because the were happy to see them. This IMO was a missed chance to educate the children properly in the limited time that these kids have to learn something about the natural world.
There are not a lot of Rangers in NYC 25-40? for all five boroughs.
The city spent millions of dollars creating the Salt Marsh Center, does not spend much to keep it up.

Too bad! It is a special place in Brooklyn.

 

[dipbait]

It looks like an Oyster mushroom. But they dont come out until late fall in the Midwest.

 

[akennedy73]

yep, looks like pleurotus ostreatus to me (oyster mushroom) - but like you said, it's pretty eaten up so it's hard to tell. the thing about oyster mushshrooms is they vary widely in color although their general shape tends to be similar - everything from yellow to pink to gunmetal gray to off-white.

 

[theonew]

the thing about oyster mushshrooms is they vary widely in color although there general shape tends to be similar - everything from yellow to pink to gunmetal gray to off-white.

I didn't know that, very interesting, thanks. I think it will be a long time before I ever eat a mushroom that hasn't been identified by an expert.

Nice mushroom pics

 

[dipbait]

I eat Oyster mushrooms. They are delicious. They grow on dead wood and look exactly like that. But Ive never seen them fresh in the spring. I would not eat that one.