Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America

Book Description

The ultimate illustrated handbook on mushrooms.

More than 1,000 handsome color photographs by Roger Phillips illustrate this comprehensive guide to mushrooms and other fungi of North America, in all their astonishing variety.

Amateur collectors, expert mycologists and armchair naturalists will welcome the reissue of this valuable reference.

Each photograph has a neutral background to eliminate distractions. The specimens are arranged to show the cap, stem, gills, spines, and a cross section, usually in various stages of growth.

The information on each mushroom variety includes:

Dimensions of cap, gills and stem
Color and texture description of flesh
Description of odor and taste
Habitat and growing season
Description of spores
Categorization of edibility.

Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America also includes useful tips and helpful advice on collecting specimens and identifying them. This book is the ideal introduction to mycology.

Customer Reviews:

Good, but has a significant problem.......2007-10-07

On the plus side, this book exhaustively presents lots of species, including quite a few not covered in other popular guides, and in general, the photos are very good in all respects save one: the color accuracy. It appears that there has been little or no attempt to use color management when it came time to reproduce the photos. It appears that the mushrooms were all photographed in-studio rather than in the field, against a gray background. To appreciate how much the color reproduction varies, just look at the gray background in each photo, and you'll see just how off the color really is.

Other than that, I'd give the book 5 stars, but accurate color is very important in a book like this, so I give it 3 stars.

more data.......2007-06-17

This book does contain data that is usefull. However, it would not be my first or second choice. The National Audubon Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms, and the Smithsonian Handbooks MUSHROOMS all are better, listed in order of my preference at this time.

Looks like a consensus..........2007-06-04

The (so far) unanimous rating is five stars, and that should tell you more about this book than anything I could write in this space. I bought "Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America" about two months ago, just as some of the spring mushrooms were starting to appear in my corner of North America. Since then, I have used the book to help me identify several species, and I have also found (and eaten!) my first morels.

Unless you're already familiar with mushrooms, one thing you'll take away from this book is an appreciation of the incredible diversity in the mushroom world. The roundly- and rightly-praised illustrations in "Mushrooms and Other Fungi" are a valuable aid in exploring this diversity. In addition to the pictures, Roger Phillips includes descriptions of chemical tests that you can perform when identification is a challenge, as it so often is. In other words, this book lets you to get into introductory mycology as rigorously as you want.

For an amateur mushroomer, I would say that "Mushrooms" is the next best thing to having a PCR machine in your living room...and much nicer to look at!

Mushrooms.......2007-05-13

For those serious about the field on mycology this is a worth while addition to your resource collection.

Another Great Mycology Book.......2007-01-05

This book contains high quality photos of 'shrooms at various stages of growth. Very handy in identifying as well as confirming identification of a said specimen. An awesome book to have in your personal library for identification. It does a splendid job of showing edible and inedible morels! A must have for morel hunters!

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts: How to Find, Identify, and Cook Them (Complete)

Average customer rating:

Completely incomplete

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts: How to Find, Identify, and Cook Them (Complete)
Katie Letcher Lyle
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places
The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants
The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America
How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation Anywhere
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))

ASIN: 1592282881

Book Description

Edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts grow wild along roadsides, in country fields, and in urban parks. All manner of leafy greens, mushrooms, and herbs that command hefty prices at the market are bountiful outdoors and absolutely free for the taking. But to enjoy them you must know, when to harvest, how to recognize, and how to prepare and eat them. The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts provides everything you need to know about these wild treasures. Included is information on the most commonly found of these wild comestibles, going beyond a field guide's description to provide folklore and mouth-watering recipes for each entry, such as wild asparagus pizza, fiddlehead soup, blackberry mousse, and elderberry pie.

This fully illustrated guide is the perfect companion for hikers, campers, and anyone who enjoys eating the good food of the earth. With The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts in hand, you'll never walk through a field again without casting your eyes about with dinner in mind.

Customer Reviews:

Completely incomplete.......2005-01-16

It's amazing how 195 pages can contain information about all wild foods (of North America?) complete with descriptions and from field identification to its uses to the kitchen. Makes no mention of ethical harvesting (photos of ginseng and her stories of the market price of ginseng actually work against the spirit of wild foods) nor warnings of poisonous lookalikes (rendering the book dangerous). Never to be bought or caught holding a copy, so please be discreet if you want to find out for yourself in a library or bookstore.

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide

Average customer rating:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMGood
Excellent Book For Novice Edible Mushroom Hunter
Limited scope, horrible recipes.
more confused than before
Great for Beginners

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide
David W. Fischer , and Alan E. Bessette
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Vegetables | Vegetables & Vegetarian | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Bacteriology | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guide Series)
Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi
A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))
Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England
The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide

ASIN: 0292720807

Book Description

"Some new mushroomers will find this single volume all the library they need to harvest and enjoy wild mushrooms for the table."

— Mushroom the Journal

"The publication is of excellent quality and print, well edited, authoritative, and provides an excellent introduction to edible and poisonous wild mushrooms."

— Mycologia

Unusual shapes and colors make many mushrooms alluring to the eye, while the exotic flavors and textures of edible mushrooms are a gourmet delicacy for the palate. Yet many people never venture beyond the supermarket offerings, fearing that all other mushrooms are poisonous.

With amateur mushroom hunters especially in mind, David Fischer and Alan Bessette have prepared Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America. This field guide presents more than 100 species of the most delicious mushrooms, along with detailed information on how to find, gather, store, and prepare them for the table. More than 70 savory recipes, ranging from soups and salads to casseroles, canapes, quiches, and even a dessert, are included.

Throughout, the authors constantly emphasize the need for correct identification of species for safe eating. Each species is described in detailed, nontechnical language, accompanied by a list of key identifying characteristics that reliably rule out all but the target species. Superb color photographs also aid in identification. Poisonous "lookalikes" are described and illustrated, and the authors also assess the risks of allergic or idiosyncratic reactions to edible species and the possibilities of chemical or bacterial contamination.

Customer Reviews:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMGood.......2006-07-25

Lovely photographs, excellent identity descriptions, tons of useful information and I love the recipes -- plan to make every one of them.

Excellent Book For Novice Edible Mushroom Hunter.......2005-03-25

This is a concise easy to use book for people just starting to
hunt for edible mushrooms. It concentrates extensively on the edibles, and look alike poisonous. By eliminating 1000s of other mushrooms it is great for identifying the finest edibles. It makes a great companion to a more all encompassing publication. The recipes I've tried were good also.

Limited scope, horrible recipes........2004-01-07

I bought this book many years ago as the first of what is now a fairly large collection on the subject. As the title indicates, it concentrates on the EDIBLE fungi, so the reviewer who was dissappointed because he/she could ID only one of the 13 mushrooms he/she found has unfair expectations out of the scope of this work. That said, only the most popular edibles seem to be listed here, and variants on those species are not covered in much depth. It's ok for those who just want to be able to distinguish a golden chanterelle from a jack-o-lantern, or a morel from a thimble-cap so they can safely gather some edibles. The worst thing about this book, however, is it's unfortunate recipes. Every single recipe I've tried from it completely sucks. Either the cooking method is inappropriate to that particular mushroom (turning delicate specimins to mush, for instance, or inundating absorptive ones with oil), or strong flavors from other ingredients overwhelm the sometimes subtle flavors of the mushrooms themselves. I get much better results by trusting my cooking intuition and experimenting than I do by following these recipes.

more confused than before.......2003-08-19

I came to US from Europe several years ago. It was a family tradition to go pick wild mushrooms every fall during my childhood years. So when I moved to Virginia countryside I decided I will try and revive the mushroom picking tradition in my new country. I started with a book to help me identify all those different, unfamiliar species of mushrooms. So I bought the "Edible Wild Mushroom Guide". I went to the woods and picked a bunch of different mushrooms - each one was different and tried to use the Guide to identify them . Out of about 14 visibly different species of mushrooms that I picked - the guide gave positive ID on ONE (!) mushroom only. Other 13 were not even included in the book. I can't testify to the quality of recepie part of the book - I was somewhat reluctant to cook things I can not identify!

Great for Beginners.......2002-11-15

For a "first" book on wild mushrooms I found this one to be very good. The pictures show the top, bottom, stems, colors and different parts of each mushroom. There are "warnings" on those that are ediable, but make some people sick, and the NO-NO"s are equally shown and written about. We're just new at this, and for a "starter" book this was just the ticket.

Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America

Average customer rating:

Best poisonous plant book to date!
good tips regarding wild and garden plants
Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore".
Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore".

Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America
Nancy J. Turner , and Adam F. Sczawinski
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Reference | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Know Your Poisonous Plants, Vol. 1 (Know Your Poisonous Plants)
A Field Guide to Venomous Animals and Poisonous Plants: North America North of Mexico (Peterson Field Guides(R))
Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants
The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet
The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants

ASIN: 0881923125

Book Description

In this invaluable guide, learn how to identify a toxic plantâ€”in the wild as well as house plantsâ€”and how to treat a poisoning victim.

This book contains all the information needed to identify toxic plants, including house plants. Each plant is fully described and pictured for easy identification, and instructions for treating the poisoning victim are given.

Customer Reviews:

Best poisonous plant book to date!.......2004-07-03

Common Poisonous Plants by Dr. Nancy Turner is the top of the line field guide to deadly botanical beauties you could come across while exploring the great outdoors.
This book is top quality in information, details, poisoning symptoms, and content! It is well worth the expense, which is a good amount. The book itself contains, plants, mushrooms, and fungi that could be hazardous to humans and animals alike. The main highlight, by far, is the toxicity section on each of the poisonous plants. The symptoms of ingestion, (contamination) are well described and could easily compell the reader to shudder. The symptoms are specific to every single plant, so that an infected person's life could easily and efficiently be saved. There is also a very helpful insight on treatment of potential poisoning.
The book is so specific, it even tells you the degree of toxicity! Unfortunately, this book is very expensive and going out of print. So, any hardcore naturalist or interested botanist should purchase this online ASAP!

good tips regarding wild and garden plants.......2002-11-16

This is a beautiful book, both in the quality of the photos and the depth and readability of the information within. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it covers both native plant species and cultivated garden plants. This book is enough to convince any parent of the wisdom of edible plant gardening, and to shy away from the deadly, flashy ornamentals.

Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore"........2000-10-25

Dr. Turners books are without a doubt unparalleled regarding her ability to use the trust she has cultivated with the indigenous peoples of the PNW. This gives her an entirely unique and very interesting look at hows plant were used by the native populations of this and surrounding areas. The people who would find her writing fascinating would cut across many disciplines from of course not only botany but anthropology, archaeology, paleontology; perhaps even modern "new-age" religious seekers. Having said that though, I dearly wish she would quit deviating in to the field of mycology. I'm not exactly sure where she gets her info from, but I suspect that working under the auspices of the BC Provincial Museum, that she has elected to defer to the often antiquated mycological texts from the among the ranks of those in the possesion of professors in the back rooms of the museum that are gathering as much dust as are the books that they in turn rely upon for ID'ing the fungi.

Plant Lore is Unequaled but Mushroom Data is Often "Lore"........2000-10-25

North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms (North American Boletes)

Average customer rating:

North American Boletes
A much needed Guide
Best Reference Guide
Most expensive paper weight i own
Scholarly, yet accessible.

North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms (North American Boletes)
Alan E. Bessette , William C. Roody , and Arleen R. Bessette
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Fungi | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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Similar Items:

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America
Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America
Morels
The Chanterelle Book
North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (Falconguide)

ASIN: 0815605889

Customer Reviews:

North American Boletes.......2007-01-04

This is a comprehensive review of the boletes of North America.
It is rather "pricy" and while it is difficult to identify all
of the boletes in this region (the mid-Atlantic), the expansive
coverage makes identification even more frustrating!

A much needed Guide.......2007-01-03

As an expierenced schrommer most of the books on mushrooms had a limited reference on boletes. This book fills that gap. The photos and the text are first class. The book is pricey but well worth it to one who loves to hunt mushrooms!!!

Best Reference Guide.......2006-08-05

This is the best reference book I have on Boletes. Because it just covers boletes it is a fairly comprehensive guide, and the book is so easy to use. The keys make it easy to identify just about any Bolete. The descriptions are in alphabetical order as are the pictures so it is easy to flip through to find what you want. The pictures are incredible! The price was well worth it for me.

Most expensive paper weight i own.......2006-07-20

Great book if you are a scientist, but for the average mushroom hunter it is way too complicated to use. Information is scattered thoughout the book so you are forever flipping pages Ex.Once you get to a name, you have to go to the index w/that name to find out where the picture it's at. Don't it make sense to have that info next to the mushroom name and description.
Don't waste your money, join a mushroom club!

Scholarly, yet accessible........2004-01-07

This book is a little pricey, but sometimes you get what you pay for. The keys are fabulous, the photography excellent, and by limiting itself to boletes, this book covers most of what you will find, at least in North America. I have been collecting, identifying, and eating wild mushrooms for years, and this is one of the best reference books of the many I've used.

Average customer rating:

Another Great ID Book
A Fungus-Viewer's Pal
Comprehensive regional reference, fabulous index
Encyclopaedic!
fairly comprehensive but hard to use. small pictures

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America
Alan E. Bessette , Arleen R. Bessette , and David W. Fischer
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bacteriology | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England
Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi
Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America
Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians
North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms (North American Boletes)

ASIN: 0815603886

Customer Reviews:

Another Great ID Book.......2007-01-03

We have found this to be a great addition to our mushroom identification library, especially since it concentrates on fungi in our area -- no thumbing through pages of west coast mushrooms! Pictures are excellent, as well as the descriptions and identifying characteristics. And it isn't too heavy to lug around! I would highly recommend it.

A Fungus-Viewer's Pal.......2006-08-02

This is a gorgeous book with BIG pictures which help in precisely identifying a found fungus. With the current wet, hot summer we've been having, mushrooms have been popping up overnight for weeks, and this book has been instrumental in letting us zero in on what we are seeing. Highly recommend.

Comprehensive regional reference, fabulous index.......2006-06-15

This is THE book on Northeastern Fungi. You probably don't want this for your first book on mycology, but if you have been studying mushrooms for a year or two and are looking for something a little meatier, this is a great choice.

The keys are comprehensive, and the index has the nice feature of listing mushrooms by their species epithet (the second half of the Latin name). This is particularly handy for finding fungi which have been moved from one genus to another.

Bessette includes plenty of microscopic details, though the keys do not generally require the use of a microscope or special chemicals.

The illustrations are really well done, with quite some attention paid to presenting diagnostic details in the photos. The illustrations and descriptive text are widely separated. I find this rather awkward, but this is only a bothersome quirk in an otherwise indispensible guide.

I do take this book into the field, but it is my primary reference for non-polypores in the lab.

Encyclopaedic!.......2004-10-06

This book is really impressive in its coverage. The description are quite complete (although somewhat lacking a section on the details differentiating one mushroom to its similar cousins) and the text is generally well organised. The reason why I gave only four stars to this book is simple: pictures and textual descriptions are separated in different sections! I guess I am still dreaming about a complete guide showing important identification details with pictures and text.

fairly comprehensive but hard to use. small pictures.......2004-08-29

this book has a wealth of information but it is organized poorly. the mushrooms are listed alphabetically with the pictures (which are ridiculously tiny) clumped incoveiniently at the end of each section. the annoying organization will have you flipping back and forth. don't expect alot of extra information on edibility or background info. get mushrooms demystified by dave aurora first or instead of.

Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England

Average customer rating:

Do not, under any circumstances, buy this book.
The best guide for northeastern North America
Motivating - my favorite
Great book
Great book for all ages

Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England
George Barron
Manufacturer: Lone Pine Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Vegetables | Vegetables & Vegetarian | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Fungi | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America
Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America
Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guide Series)
Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide

ASIN: 1551052016

Book Description

A full-color photographic field guide to mushrooms and fungi of the northern United States, from the Midwest to New England. Featured in USA Today, this must-have reference has spectacular photos and excellent species information.

Customer Reviews:

Do not, under any circumstances, buy this book........2007-09-07

This book misses one edible mushroom in particular that is of great interest to amateur hunters. Grifola frondosa is one of the world's best edibles and can grow to huge size. I am very surprised that an author with such prestigious honors missed it (although he did find a similar mushroom in the same group, the non-edible "Berekley's Polypore"). Grifola frondosa is common and widespread, and grows up to a huge size. To write about each of these other mushrooms, and not to have at least walked onto frondosa, is impossible. I suggest the Audubon guide, although the pictures aren't as nice, the black and white plates in the back can help identify the shape of a mushroom more clearly. To make up for the keys in this book, it is easy to scrounge around the net. (Keys help identify mushrooms even if you have no idea what they are.) Best of luck in your hunting.

The best guide for northeastern North America.......2005-11-29

I love this book. Dr. Barron's field guide is filled with gorgeous photos and valuable information. There is no better field guide to the mushrooms of northeastern North America, and Dr. Barron has an incredible knack for describing mushrooms succinctly. Many, many species featured in this book are not featured in other field guides. "Mushrooms of Northeast North America" is a must for anyone interested in identifying mushrooms.

Motivating - my favorite.......2005-11-11

I've had this book two years, and since that time have been hunting fungi to take pictures. They are interesting and make good subjects - and this book is motiviating with its beautiful photographs. A good 'guide' to read in the evening before going out the next day..

This is my favorite of a growing 'fungi guide' library, and the first I use when returning home from the field to look at my photos. [A bit tall for the pocket, but narrower than most field guides.] It does not cover everything I find, but neither do any of the others. You have to use multiple sources to get a feel for what you saw, and I now routinely collect a few specimens of the more common things I see to make spore prints to aid identification (but don't eat them!!). Being able to review your own photos helps. Different books have different pictures of the same species, and sometimes I think they look very different (not the same). That tells this newcomer to be even more wary of thinking I know what I'm looking at! Time and experience do make a difference, however, and as with any hobby one knows more as you go along. One thing I learned is to take a specimen of common things you find and make a spore print. This book sorts them that way.

I do like this book best for its treatment of edibles. It lists a dozen or so that are "easy" to recognize and not likely to confuse with dangerous species. Of course if you don't see one JUST like the picture AND matches the details of the description, beware. Other books may differ on the edibility of these, or even offer some that this book says to avoid. So one must start by assuming all specimens are dangerous. That whittles the amatuer's selection down to those half-dozen or so kinds that all the books agree on. Nothing wrong with that! as I've found several of these 'basic' edibles already (morels, black trumpet, inkycap, puffball).

I've recommended this book to friends, and now do so to you, too.

Great book.......2005-09-08

This is a great book with color photos of mushrooms of North east america.

Great book for all ages.......2004-10-20

I bought this book for my 3 year old niece, who lives in Maine where there is an amazing variety of mushrooms. My sister reported:

She absolutely loves her mushroom book. She took it to bed with her last night, and took it on our carriage trip today. She recognized the big mushroom immediately.

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms (Nature Guide Series)

Average customer rating:

In Search of Mushrooms
I like this one
Take this book with you on your trip to Spain
Not a Guide for North America
Not a good guide for North America

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms (Nature Guide Series)
Gary H. Lincoff
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Bacteriology | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guide Series)
Mushrooms (Smithsonian Handbooks)
The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide
Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the Northeast

ASIN: 0671428497

Book Description

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms is indispensable to anyone fascinated by mushrooms and other fungi. Lavishly illustrated, it contains detailed information about 420 types of mushrooms and other fungi found in the United States and Europe. The comprehensive introduction provides general information on the structure, reproduction, life cycles, classification, and distribution of the various species and describes the individual parts of the fungus as well. The entries describe the appearance, habitat, and geographic distribution of each species of fungi. The easy-to-use visual key provides each entry with immediately recognizable symbols that indicate spore color, ecological environment, and whether the species is edible or poisonous. A glossary and analytical index, plus an Index to Genera for locating particular subjects, help make this the most beautiful, valuable, and authoritative book in the field.

Customer Reviews:

In Search of Mushrooms.......2007-05-17

I was recently hiking in California and also looking for fungi. However, to make sure I can identify any fungi that I may encounter with certain amount of certainty, I needed a field book. Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms was the only one that I found in a bookshop. I was pleased to find the book quite comprehensive both in the number of varieties that it covers, and the descriptions for identifying the mushrooms found. There are also quite a lot of good photographs but are mainly showing the cap and stem and rarely from underneath the cap, which is a weakness of this book. Although it is not specifically for the North American fungi, I find it a very useful reference and not too heavy to carry in a backpack.

I like this one.......2007-03-13

This is a pretty good book, although it contains mushrooms not found in North America. So they say. I am sure I found one that isn't supposed to grow here. (No analyitacl proof, but it didn't kill me)

Take this book with you on your trip to Spain.......2006-08-21

After struggling in the field using this guide, I almost gave up trying to identify mushrooms. Then I checked the publishing info and found it was written in Spain with photo credits from London, Milano, Paris....This is a European translation from the early 80's, don't make the mistake I did!

I then randomly opened the book and ran a search on the mushroom on the page: Cortinarius Albovioceus My search led to a mushroom expert's site that said this mushroom is found in Scandinavia and no specimen to the expert's knowledge was ever been found in North America.

But I should say that the book has great photos that could be used as a secondary verification of an identity.

Not a Guide for North America.......2005-10-26

I bought this book after someone showed it to me. After quickly looking at it and seeing the format I thought I would really like it, but I don't! I was surprised to open the book to the Pleurotus ostreatus and seeing it in the photo as a very dark brown mushroom. My four other field guides (and the only way I have seen it in the field) show it as a very pretty whitish mushroom like the one this book describes as the Pleurotus cornucopiae. I wonder were the descriptions mixed up or is this how they are in Italy where the book was first written and published. A very disappointing book! I should have read the copy right page and then I would have known that it was not a field guide for North America. I will stick with Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora and the Audubon Field Guide.

Not a good guide for North America.......2004-11-10

Caveat: I do not own this book.

I was thinking about buying it but was put off by a comment on Dave Fischer's web page: "Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms is not a good choice for use as a field guide in North America; it is a translation of an Italian work, hence is not a very useful identification manual for this continent. It is, however, a great general-interest mushroom book, with excellent introductory information."

Amazon's great "Search inside this book" feature confirmed it. The copyright page shows "Translation of Funghi" ... "Pacioni, Giovanni", "English translation by Simon Pleasance".

Average customer rating:

An excellent guide with exquisite watercolour illustrations.

Mushrooms of Northwest North America
Helene M. E. Schalkwijk-Barendsen
Manufacturer: Lone Pine Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mushrooms of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest (Northwest Naturalist Books.)
Common Mushrooms of the Northwest: Alaska, Western Canada & the Northwestern United States
All That the Rain Promises, and More ...: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms
Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi
Mammals of Washington and Oregon

ASIN: 1551050463

Book Description

This book covers over 500 species of mushrooms found in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast and from Alaska south to California. Each plant is described in detail, including information on habitat, distribution, identification and edibility. The text is accompanied by exquisite color illustrations. Indexes for common names, genera and species, as well as an illustrated glossary, are also included.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent guide with exquisite watercolour illustrations........2000-04-20

Helene M. E. Schalkwijk-Barendsen's guide to the mushrooms of Northwest North America is an excellent introduction to this subject. Schalkwijk-Barendsen covers all the mushrooms one is likely to encounter in this region with both informative text and beautiful watercolour illustrations also painted by the author. Species are referenced by both common and Latin name making this book accessible to both the interested novice and the experienced mushroom enthusiast. This book should be a first-choice for anyone who love the outdoors, mushrooms and art.

Average customer rating:

The Mushroom Identifier
D. N. Pegler , and Brian Spooner
Manufacturer: Smithmark Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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