Fungus among us something to cluck about

To the editor:

Walking is great exercise, but there is one unremarked benefit. Moving at a slower speed allows one to look around and take in your surroundings more carefully. For example, I’m always amazed, given my familiarity with Riverdale, that it is frequently difficult for me to identify exactly which house is being featured in the real estate section. The same holds true for our gardens and plants. Traveling by car or even by bike makes it impossible to closely examine the immediate environment.

I was walking through Henry Hudson Park last week and as I started up a final path, I saw a fluffy, ruffled and layered ball at the foot of an oak tree. Clearly a photo was in order. Stepping back, I discovered a second, identical ball growing out of the ground. 

We all recognize the common garden plants and wildflowers, but when something unusual crops up I turn to the New York Botanical Garden for identification (plantinfo@nybg.org). They are very gracious and usually get back to you within a few days. In this case, the suggested identification was laetiporus cincinnatus — also known as chicken of the woods. An alternative possibility was put forth by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (grc@bbg.org), which suggested that it might be instead grifola frondosa – hen of the woods.

As any good plant person knows, plants are not simple and it takes time and experience to recognize and understand them.

Sura Jeselsohn