A whopping 23 people showed up in Forest Park in search of fungi. So far, 83 species have been identified (with several collections of hysterioid fungi in the hopper, as it were. We visited the pine grove (by Myrtle Ave. & Park Lane South), an area we rarely make it to, in search of the resinicolous ascomycete Sarea resinae – and found several collections (also some very nice oyster muchrooms!). Unfortunately for the pine grove, Sigrid Jakob found a large fruiting of Heterobasidion irregulare on a White Pine stump. This polypore is a serious pathogen of conifer, and its presence is a bad sign for the grove. On a brighter note, Hymenochaete rubiginosa received a new common name, “False Tree Bacon,” due to its superficial resemblance to Punctularia strigosozonata, aka “Tree Bacon.”…
*=new to park **=new to city