Found near Pittsburgh · September
What people actually find here
400 species have been recorded within about 40 km of here in September, from verified public observations. These are the ones we have written up, ordered by how often they turn up.
Acorns85 records within 40 km this month
Pawpaw75 records within 40 km this month
Staghorn sumac72 records within 40 km this month
Dangerous look-alikeGiant puffball47 records within 40 km this month
Dangerous look-alikeYarrow27 records within 40 km this month
Also out there, that we haven't written up yet
Recorded near you this month. We have no identification guidance for these, so treat them as a list of things to go and learn — from a regional key or someone who knows them — not as a list of things to pick.
Fungi
turkey-tail
Trametes versicolor
174 records nearby
Ringless Honey Mushroom
Desarmillaria caespitosa
119 records nearby
Your woods
What's growing around Pittsburgh
The commonest trees recorded nearby, most often seen first. Most of the good mushrooms are tied to a particular tree, so this is the first thing to know about a wood.
- maple
- oak
- sycamore
- walnut
- tulip tree
- pine
- beech
- mulberry
Know these first
What can hurt you around Pittsburgh in September
11 species on our hazard list have been recorded near here this month, 2 of which can kill a healthy adult. Learn these before you learn anything you intend to eat.
- Can kill33 records nearby
White baneberry
Actaea pachypoda
- Mistaken for
- Nothing edible, but the berries are conspicuous and children pick them.
- How to tell
- Porcelain-white berries each with a single black dot, on thick red stalks — the common name is doll's eyes.
- What it does
- Cardiac sedative: a few berries cause severe symptoms in a child.
- Can kill18 records nearby
Eastern destroying angel
Amanita bisporigera
- Mistaken for
- Button mushrooms, meadow mushrooms, and young puffballs picked before they open.
- How to tell
- Pure white gills that never turn pink or brown, and a sac-like cup at the very base of the stem — it sits below the soil, so you have to dig the whole mushroom up to see it. A puffball cut in half is solid white throughout; a young destroying angel shows the outline of a mushroom inside.
- What it does
- Amatoxins destroy the liver. You feel fine for six to twelve hours, then violently ill, then apparently better — that false recovery is the liver failing. One cap is a lethal dose for an adult.
- Hospital324 records nearby
Next
What to start watching for
Coming into season in the next month or two near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather, so treat these as things to keep an eye on rather than dates.
