Notable mushrooms of Franklin Park Zoo

[urbpan]

A good number of interesting mushrooms have appeared at Franklin Park Zoo this summer. This one caught a lot of people's attention. It was much lighter when it first emerged, and you can see it's starting to decay. This is Bondarzewia berkeleyi. Most notable for it's large size, it's a parasite of oak trees. This one is emerging from the ground, feeding on the hidden wood of a now gone tree.



These are tiny bolete mushrooms, emerging from the floor of the emu barn. This is strange because these mushroom are obligate symbionts with trees. The mycelium of these mushrooms must connect with tree roots under the barn.


I took this picture a little over a week ago. Since then, It's turned leathery and tan, and someone has added sticks and pine cones to make it a mushroomy Jack-o-lantern/snowman kind of thing. Also the smaller mushroom in this picture is now about the size of a softball, while a third one that was not there at all last week has emerged and is fully as big as a cantaloupe.

Most notable from my perspective, is that these giant puffballs are the only ones I have ever seen. That is to say, every giant puffball I have seen was produced by the organism that lives in the soil here by the condor cage. Check the "puffball" tag to see three years worth of Langermannia (Calvatia) gigantea and it's relatives.