Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America

This book is excellent to keep in the car during forays and cross reference with mushroom field guides. The pictures are almost 3 dimensional and most of them show the various stages of the fruit bodies. The photos also show with clarity, every part of the mushroom in detail in their true colors and variations. This affordable reissue of this highly regarded tome caused quite a clamor in my mycolgist club.

The photographs and descriptions are among the most useful we have in our collection of mushroom guides. Marvellous for amateur mycologists and veteran mushroom hunters alike.

Our yard, which is surrounded by swamps and a pine barren, is a haven for mushrooms: bright yellow ones that look like curdled egg yolk; morels in the spring (yummy); groups of flat-headed, long-stemmed mushrooms with black gills that turn into an inky sludge overnight (if you step into the sludge you're doomed), and shelves of multicolored fungi that grow on dead trees. I figured it was time to consult a book on mushrooms, and this one is a doozy. "Mushrooms of North America" has over a thousand color photographs of mushrooms, along with detailed descriptions of its subjects. The explanatory paragraphs include a description of the mushroom's cap, gills, stem, veil, and flesh. There is also information on the mushroom's odor, taste, spores, and habitat (including the season when it can be found). Additional comments are included on important matters such as edibility. The introduction has directions on how to use this book. Novice mycologists like me are supposed start at the two-page "Beginner's Key" that illustrates some of the most common groups (genera) of mushrooms. So, let me go out and collect a mushroom and see if I can identify it from the "Beginner's Key"... Unfortunately, my mushroom doesn't look like anything in the "Beginner's Key" but I have learned two things: (1) I need to collect the base of the mushroom in order to completely identify it. I can't just break the mushroom off at ground level; (2) spore color is an important identification key. This book has directions on how to collect spores, but for the impatient it may be possible to scan through all thousand photographs and get a hit without waiting overnight for the spores to show up, which is what I did. What I thought were three distinct species of mushrooms all turned out to be Shaggy Manes (Coprinus comatus) in different stages of growth. According to the author, shaggy manes are edible and delicious when young, but the cap liquefies into such an inky mess, I think I'll give them a pass--at least until I become more familiar with fungi. In spite of the fact that my mushroom's genus wasn't in the "Beginner's Key," I believe this book will be an important element in my mycological education. It's the most comprehensive identification guide I've yet found. P.S. The bright yellow mushrooms in our yard are Jack O'Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens)- also not in the "Beginner's Key" but easily identified from their photograph and description. According to the author, it is "poisonous, but usually not fatal" so I'll restrain myself from eating this one, too.

I've hunted mushrooms for 30 years, and this is the best book I've seen for identifying the edibles.

I have been a mushroom enthusiast for years now, but when I was given this fine book for my birthday, my excitement was doubled. The endless, clear, complete photos give all phases of the fungi you could find in the wild, not just a single photo or drawing. The written information is complete and easy to read. The glossary is amazing.The photos are so lovely you'd be proud to have them hanging in your house! The only drawback is it's too large to take into the field, but I always have it waiting for fast and certain identification at the end of a day.This is a "can't do without it" book for the mushroom hunter. His book on European mushrooms is equally fine.