Warm, humid days are good news for urban mold hunters in New York

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Heat and humidity in the forecast usually mean rough, sticky days. But for members of the New York Mycological Society, those are peak fungus-hunting conditions.

Club members gather in parks throughout the city districts for walks with the express purpose of searching for, documenting, and appreciating mushrooms and other fungi. The walks take place on weekends throughout the year, but the soggy days of summer and early fall are when fungi thrive. Rainy weather makes for particularly good fungus observations.

Their endeavor combines the whimsy of birdwatching with the rigor of citizen science. The novelty keeps people coming back.

“It’s very rare to discover a new tree species or even a new bird in New York City, but it’s very easy to find a new plant species or a new mushroom in New York City,” said Sigrid Jakob, the association’s president. “There’s just the opportunity to break new ground and discover something truly remarkable, even on a casual stroll.”

Founded by composer John Cage and his friends in 1962, the organization has more than 1,300 members who pay $20 a year and meet for weekly walks, plus book clubs, lectures and festivals. They have encountered more than 1,600 species of fungi in the five boroughs over six decades, recording most of them on iNaturalist, a popular platform for fungus enthusiasts.

Vivian Young, a 63-year-old retiree from the Bronx, joined the association after meeting members at a trade show several years ago. She loved flowers and birds, but then she realized “how beautiful” fungi can be, she said. She remained fascinated by their beauty and elusiveness.

“There can always be things growing, and sometimes you go back to a place where you saw a lot of mold, and there’s nothing there at all,” she said, referring to the unpredictable, ever-changing nature of the activity and the molds themselves.

Fungi ensure that ecosystems function properly and are essential for healthy soils and plants.

“Fungi play a hugely important role in ecologies … They’re the glue that holds everything together,” Jakob said. “They’re these invisible helpers that help ecosystems flourish.”

There may be tens of millions of species of fungi, but only about 150,000 have been classified. That means there are plenty of opportunities for members of society to contribute to a growing body of knowledge about a life form that is often overlooked compared to animals, flowers or trees.

Jakob’s most recent discovery was a small fungus she found last winter growing on goose poop. The fungus “makes its own carpet that it covers itself with,” she said. Underneath the carpet are “little black cannonballs” and inside them are “cool-looking spores that look amazing under the microscope,” she said.

She and another mycologist gave the fungus a name: Sporormiella tela — and published an article about it.

The parks that are best for looking for mold, Jakob said, are “a little less visited, a little more lush, a little less poopy” — places like Staten Island’s High Rock Park plus Forest Park and Alley Pond Park in Queens. She said Prospect Park is generally the group’s least favorite because of the crowds that trample the mold and the lack of restrooms, which means members find toilet paper and other “unwelcome trash” everywhere they look for mold.

On a Sunday in June, before the real summer heat set in, nearly 50 people of all ages gathered for a mushroom hunt in Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, one of the members’ favorite parks for this activity.

Some carried walking sticks, others carried T-shirts and bags with pictures of fungi. Absorbed in observation, they wandered around with their phones taking pictures, blocking the paths for several passing cyclists.

Others huddled around a tree stump to peer through magnifying glasses — handheld lenses — to get a closer look at a dark gray fungus known as dead man’s fingers. Stacey Tokhtamysh, 29, put a piece of it in a plastic tackle box for closer inspection later.

Like many people active in the Mycological Society, the Bushwick resident was introduced to the wide world of fungi through her interest in collecting edible mushrooms.

“I really missed collecting mushrooms. I am originally from Ukraine, where it is more common, but here it is not so widespread,” Tokhtamysh said.

The Mycological Society generally advises against collecting mushrooms for eating, as this is against city regulations.

Paul Sadowski, a trail leader, stressed that identification requires careful study of a fungus’ anatomy and characteristics, as well as figuring out where and when it grows — and, most importantly, exercising patience.

“You have to get all those variables, notice them and describe them, and that’s what will lead you to a rational decision about how to identify the mushroom,” he said. “It’s not something you can learn in one class or seminar. It’s something you have to develop over a long period of time.”

That day in the park, Sadowski pointed out a fungus hanging like a plank halfway up the trunk of a black acacia tree. Members of the group brought him what they had found and asked for his insight. The quest is an inherently social activity, with participants sharing knowledge in person and in online communities.

At the end of the walk, everyone explained what they had collected and tried to identify them. Sometimes people take their specimens home to examine under a microscope, perform DNA sequencing, or consult their guides.

Realizing that mold is everywhere adds a new dimension to hikes and daily walks, said Ami Kumari, 40, of the Upper East Side. She records what she finds on the iNaturalist app.

“There’s so much more than what you actually see,” she said. “So much variety, so much diversity — just like people.”