Trip Report: Woodway Urban Hike

May 17th, 2020

During this time of quarantine, my wife and I have been going on a lot of 'urban hikes' in our area. This weekend we went to the small city of Woodway, WA ( just south of Edmonds, WA) to walk around the neighborhood. While on our walk we came across a small park that actually had some great mushrooms! Take a look at some of our finds below!

Artists Conk

Artists Conk Woodway WA Washington Urban Hike

Going through any wooded area in Washington, you are almost guranteed to see at least one Artist's Conk if you know where to look. You'll find these polyphores growing off of stumps, trees and other wooded objects. You can identify them by their bright white underside which some use as a canvas for art. There are some really cool ones on Etsy, if you curious (Artist's Conk Art on Etsy).

Agrocybe putaminum?

Agrocybe putaminum Woodway WA Washington Urban Hike

These mushroom (and ones very similar to it) are another common one typically found in parks and backyards in the puget sound. These guys love growing in wood chips so you'll likely see them anywhere you can find wood chips, trails, gardens and playgrounds to name a few. Unfortunetly these aren't edible as with most brown gilled mushrooms so nothing to harvest here, but it is still fun to see them pop up in such huge numbers.

Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus populinus)

Oyster Mushrooms Pleurotus populinus Woodway WA Washington Urban Hike Oyster Mushrooms Pleurotus populinus underside Woodway WA Washington Urban Hike Oyster Mushrooms Pleurotus populinus top Woodway WA Washington Urban Hike

Oysters!! I was so surprised when we stumbled upon these edible beauties! There are 11 species of Oyster mushrooms which all grow on wood and may or may not have a short stem. I almost decided to harvest these, but when I thought about the risk of contamination in a urban park I decided against it. Be cautious when searching for these though as they do have a few look-alikes that are poisonous.

Future Prospects

Personally I would never recommend harvesting mushrooms in the city because of the risk of contamination but if you're just interested in photographing mushrooms definitly give your local urban hiking area a shot! There are a ton of great parks around Seattle to check out and I'm sure there are plenty of mushrooms in all of them.