How Many Mushrooms in One Day?
I have always wondered how many mushroom species it would be possible to see in one day in Santa Cruz County. Since this fall has been so exceptionally fruitful for mushrooms, I decided to give it a go… How else to find out?
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Christian Schwarz
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December 26, 2014
Found on that day in 2014. © Christian Schwarz
I chose this time of the year because the fall mushroom assemblage is rapidly transitioning into the winter assemblage, briefly bumping up easily-seen diversity during the period of overlap. Hunting had to be spread out over 4 days (eleven hours), but I’m quite sure that all the mushrooms I encountered could have been found on either the 18th or the 21st.
I ended up with 270 species (not all identified to species, but recognizable RTUs).
To find out what was found in Santa Cruz County on that day in 2014, visit my post on Tumblr:
A Pseudo-Big Day in Santa Cruz, Notes of a Mycophile
