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    • Ecology >
      • RutgersSiteVisit
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brightwood park discoveries



Brightwood Park... Mushroom Demonstration Garden?

9/14/2023

 
 It would not be an exaggeration to give the park another name such as mushroom demonstration garden.  You can find many different species here, with a diversity of colors, morphologies, patterns, and sizes.  The appearance of some are seasonal.

Mushrooms grow fast and can surprise daily visitors by their sudden appearance from nothing the night before.  The heart shaped one here is a good example.  

Hearts are my favorite shape of objects.  I shared photos of heart-shaped moss before.  Here it is the first time I saw a cute mushroom in this shape.  This particular mushroom seemed to be stylish in the dress to wear. 

Near the Prospect Street entrance, there is a flora of yellow-colored slime molds.  One of the patches caught my eye and reminded me of Simba, the character in the Disney movie of "Lion King".  Another patch looked like a strange bird.  After a close examination, the "beak" turned out to be a slug.  Slugs love to feed on mushrooms.  I did not realize they also like slime molds.

Near the area where baby green herons were hatched and raised, I saw mushrooms of light green and purple colors on the ground.  Nearby there were many floras of green lichens, too.

Comments are closed.

    Chuan-Chu Chou

    I am a frequent visitor of Brightwood Park and enjoy sharing my discoveries.


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Brightwood Park is on the North end of Prospect Street.  Go past Franklin School and look for the entrance on the left.

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