On a particularly gorgeous Sunday in October, 30 explorers with the New York Mycological Society met at a cemetery in Brooklyn to hunt for mushrooms. They rummaged through leaves, carefully inspected the headstones, and gingerly reached into tree trunks, hoping to find something amazing. A turkey tail, perhaps, or hen-of-the-wood. "It was like a scavenger hunt," says Zack DeZon, a photographer who joined them on the search. "It struck me as the analog equivalent of Pokemon Go."
DeZon is not particularly enamored with fungus, but a mushroom-obsessed friend's Instagram feed piqued his interest. The fellow pointed him toward the Mycological Society which has since 1962 catered to those with an interest in mycology and mycophagy. The society, created by the composer John Cage, has 430 members and meets throughout the year to find mushrooms, eat mushrooms, and discuss mushrooms.
"People are interested in mushrooms primarily for eating, but when people join the club, often, their interests expand: ecology, taxonomy, medicinal mushrooms," says Tom Bigelow, the president of the society. In the past seven years, the society has recorded more than 600 species throughout the city.
Anyone with an interest in such things is free to join a hunt during mushroom season, which peaks between July and October. Most occur within the city, from High Rock Park in Staten Island to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. Society members help curious newcomers find and identify fungi. Hen-of-the-wood, chicken, and oyster mushrooms are common, and intrepid foragers have found specimens weighing up to 35 pounds. Look carefully and you may find a few hallucinogenic 'shrooms, and poisonous death cap and destroying angel mushrooms. (The society has recorded just one serious poisoning, in the 1970s.)
DeZon and his fellow fungi admirers spent three hours hunting for mushrooms in any moist, shaded spot they saw, and identifying them with the help of magnifying glasses. “Everyone was very earnest,” he says. Many people left carrying shopping bags bulging with mushrooms. Even DeZon got caught up in the excitement, discovering a hollow tree with a bounty of oyster mushrooms.
Aside from scoring a treasure trove of fungi, the society is deeply passionate about the wonders to be discovered in local parks. “It’s all about finding and identifying," says DeZon. “Mushrooms are very beautiful, when you stop to marvel at the structures." Beautiful, and tasty.
