Listener supported WNYC Studios.

It's the Ryan Ler Show here on WNYC.

I'm Tiffany Hanson in for Brian today.

He will be back on Monday.

We're taking a right turn now into mushrooms, something you might see at the farmers market

or maybe sprouting from a rotting log.

Of course, New York City, despite of all of our concrete and our steel has a very rich

fungal ecosystem of its own. Believe it or not, from Central Park to obscure corners

of Staten Island, mushrooms of all shapes, sizes, scientific names are quietly thriving here.

And there's one group of New Yorkers paying very close

attention. That group is the New York Micological, and I hope I'm saying that right, and we'll

ask our guest, that's the NYMS, the New York Micological Society. You may have read about them.

In the New York Times this week, the reporter Andy Newman,

had a great article with the headline hunting the wild mushrooms of New York City. And so we're

going to talk with Ethan Crenson, who is president of the NYMS about mushrooms. That club

welcomes culinary enthusiasts, become a hub for citizens taxonomists anybody tracking fungi in the

five boroughs so Ethan welcome and did I say it right yes you did thank you for having me on

I'm really delighted to be here absolutely listeners what are the weirdest most beautiful mushrooms

that you've seen in and around the five boroughs?

Call us.

Text us 212-433-9-692-21433 WNYC.

So first of all, Ethan, tell us about the society.

...