Foragers and fans of Central Park know wet fall weather has led to a bumper crop of mushrooms, so much so that the New York Times City Room asked readers to send in photos of their finds. They tapped mycologist and Manhattanite Gary Lincoff–he’s the author of the Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Mushrooms–to ID them, and the 19 photos from his first fascinating report are now up online right here. Lincoff also teaches at the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and we recommend taking his classes: We once traveled with him on a mushroom hunting trip to Bear Mountain during one of the driest Octobers on record, and even then we managed to soak up plenty of knowledge about spores (and carted home a bagful of black walnuts, to boot).
