Pennsylvania Fungi and Their Natural Habitat

Pennsylvania Fungi and Their Natural Habitat is on display at Phipps Garden Center in Mellon Park, part of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh. It's open daily and runs through the first week of January 2027, so you've got plenty of time to catch it over the next few months.

The exhibit features botanical illustrations of fungi native to Pennsylvania, all created by the Phipps Botanical Art and Illustration Program. Each piece is signed and numbered by the artist and includes the scientific name of the species, so it's as much a study in biology as it is in art. It's a good look at the kind of things that grow right under our feet across the state.

Pennsylvania is home to thousands of fungi species, and they thrive in a huge range of habitats—from mature hardwood forests to urban mulch. Spring and autumn are their peak seasons, so if you've spent any time in the woods during those months, you've seen them in action. Fungi belong to their own kingdom of eukaryotic organisms, separate from plants and animals, and they do the essential work of breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem. Without them, the whole cycle would stall.

The display is part of Phipps' wider botanical illustration program, at an institution gifted to the City of Pittsburgh by Henry Phipps in 1893. The exhibit moved to the Welcome Center in October, and it stays open daily through the first week of January 2027.