Mushrooms: How to Identify and Gather Wild Mushrooms and Other Fungi

Fantastic text with really in depth analysis of each specific species, a tree chart for anyone to follow and see a good overview of the different species in each type of fungus. No slimes, strictly for fruiting mushrooms only. No medicinal use guidelines are in the text, one needs must know about this topic on their own. I find this to be very fastidious on the behalf of the author, who has done a great amount of research to ensure that the reader can find most edible species of mushrooms that are suitable for use in the wild, and differentiate between those that are poisonous as well. An example is the morel mushroom and the false morel, which the author uses as an example for how to read the keys in the text to avoid confusion and stay safe while wild crafting and gathering mushrooms. Very informative, great work! Would recommend for mycologists and general readers too.

Not practical for field use. Excellent and numerous photos. Informative and concise reading. A wonderful way to learn about the amazing subject of fungi/mushrooms and which ones are safely edible. Would have been nice to include basic ways to prepare/cook them.I was disappointed how low-key the Psilocybe species, AKA Magic Mushrooms, were presented. This family has over 180 types, 5 (well known) were listed — with the poison icon. I was thinking a person behind bars would be a more appropriate icon. Perhaps legal issues prompted a somewhat glossed-over approach with this subject, even though medicinal use is becoming legal. Thus, warranting further honest study and perhaps a seperate section.In addition, the fact is, psychedelic mushrooms are in-demand because of the spiritual connectivity they can induce in a person. I personally choose not to partake with this use because I view it as a potential cheat and I’m not big on the “let’s see what happens” approach. Every now and then I do like to take chances, but I prefer to be prepared or at least know what I’m doing. It’s safer. But hey, to each their own. All I’m saying is that it would be nice to identify most of them too, so I don’t ingest one when I’m in a risky mood and then wonder what is happening because I don’t really know what I did. 🤪

IN SHORT – The perfect guide for beginners interested in identifying mushrooms, and surprisingly useful for more advanced enthusiasts. Most mushroom guidebooks describe mushrooms using vague or highly specialized terminology, usually accompanied by photos which fail to show the key features described in the text. “Mushrooms–How to” clearly illustrates the key features as needed, requiring little or no prior experience, nor knowledge of esoteric mycologese.> For several years, I avoided this book because, to me, the title implied that it was a "how to go mushrooming" (for edible mushrooms) guidebook. It is not. It is an exceptionally well executed general mushroom identification guidebook. It would be very useful for mushroom hunters, but that is not its mission.COVERAGE – The coverage is fairly even – not greatly overemphasizing some groups or under-emphasizing others. Specifically, the coverage of “Mushrooms–How to” is NOT biased toward large edible species.> The coverage (spanning North America and Europe) containing 309 pages of species discussions, at mostly 1 species/page, sounds thin (especially compared to, for example, the ~800 species covered in “Fieldguide to the Mushrooms of the Carolinas”). Yet, I found “Mushrooms–How to” contain an unexpectedly high percentage of the species that I am interested in. South Florida is tropical, and off-the-beaten-path of most guidebooks which cater to temperate (and to lesser extent subtropical) species. So, I was very surprised to find so many familiar species.> ENTRIES – Most entries consists of photos, usually of a side view, top view, a view of the gill side, and a long-section. Headless arrows identify specific identification features. Each full entry also contains a ~3 sentence introduction, and a short table with a few words describing the “spore deposit” [color], “size”, “habitat”, “range”, and fruiting [season]. A postage stamp size (i.e., too small) “painting” shows how the mushrooms appear in their habitat, with age variations. The photos are a over-saturated and over-sharpened --- to some extent becoming more diagrammatic (clear), and less literally ("photographically") accurate -- that's NOT a criticism, but rather is merely an observation.> “SURPRISINGLY USEFUL” – One picture truly is "worth a thousand words". That being the case, the species entries in “Mushrooms–How to” are each the equivalent of 5 or 10 pages of text. Even though I’m a fairly advanced enthusiast, I found MHT to be surprisingly informative. In many cases “Mushrooms–How to” confirmed previous identifications that I wasn’t absolutely certain about. Sometimes “Mushrooms–How to” caused me to reassess my earlier identifications.> VISUAL GLOSSARY? – I purchased “Mushrooms–How to” expecting a more extensive pictorial glossary of fungal terminology — which the selected pages on the Amazon webpage appeared to show, and the title appears to imply. The photos which are used in the 4 page “visual glossary” are helpful, but are too small and are often unclear. Fortunately, the visual glossary is largely unnecessary, since the corresponding details are illustrated in the individual entries, as necessary.INDEX -- The index has many defects. Examples: There is an entry for "common disk-footed", dropping the key word "bonnet". Some entries are simply out of alphabetical order, e.g. hypocreales comes before hypholoma; Craterellus comes before "cap features". According to the index, the entry for Neobulgaria pura is on page 36, but there is no mention of the species on that page (nor on any other page).-- No common names are indexed as written, so for example: There is an entry for "amanita, booted", but no entry for "booted amanita"; and a "blewit, wood", but no index entry for "wood blewit", etc.

This was a gift and she loved it, great information and color pictures

This book has so many mushrooms and identification information. The good, the bad, and the deadly. There are so many. And some of the ones you think look safe aren't, and some that look like there would be no way, are actually quite delicious. Definitely glad I got this book.

Easy to follow and understand.Clear, real life, large pictures.Full of information, any question you can think of answered. (So far anyways, I haven't finished it yet)Very detailed and beautifully done.

Love the detailed photographs, and the comprehensive descriptions of wild mushrooms. A great book!

I'm an amateur mycologist who's identified around 100 species in the woods around me.I'm reviewing the 2013 edition. The guide is very complete, with a focus on North America.This would be a great beginner mycologist book for a college biologist, or a young child who just wants to know about mushrooms. It has a decent field key, and it's a pretty good reference if you don't have any region specific books yet. I have for sure grown in my mushroom knowledge with this book, and its fun to show my toddler.My only complaint is that there are a few minor out-of-date mushroom classifications, and the mushrooms' range have changed since the book was published, but that's just humans changing the natural world, not the publishers' fault. E.g. Gymnopus peronata was renamed collybiopsis peronata and is now found in the US. If that's a problem for you, go read an academic journal ya nerd.