Customer Reviews:
Not Practical for the Common Hiker.......2007-01-07
This book has three fatal flaws that should prevent it from being in the library of any person without formal training in botany and/or mycology:
Flaw #1: Exclusive use of scientific names (Latin). Common names get only a passing mention and are often not included in the index.
Flaw #2: Identification key is based upon spore printing. The ID key for this book requires spore printing for most mushrooms as a first step. This requires removing the fruiting body, e.g. picking the mushroom just to ID it. Except for purposes of consumption it is illegal to harvest mushrooms in most U.S. National Parks. This book should be illegal too. I hate following in the footsteps of people who harvest mushrooms for purpose of identification. There is nothing more annoying than to discover the sole specimen on an entire hiking trail has already been taken/picked/cut/spore-printed by some inconsiderate hiker. Books like this one which encourage such behavior have no place in our society.
Flaw #3: The book doesn't include the "lower order" of fungi such as Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi. In my part of the world the Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi are among the most prolific and interesting of all fungi. The book is worthless to me for identification of those.
Don't buy this book if you feel as do I that harvesting mushrooms for the simple purpose of identification is not an Eco-friendly behavior.
Practical field guide and interesting read.......2006-08-26
Reviewed by Juanita Watson for Reader Views (8/06)
"North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi" is a comprehensive field guide that features most of the fungi one may encounter in the United States and Canada. This field guide is part of "A Falcon Guide" series and is a necessary asset to the library of any wild mushroom, or edible plant disciple.
"North American Mushrooms" is authored by the husband/wife team of mushroom enthusiasts. The Miller's have a long and extensive history in the world of fungi - they have worked all over North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia, and recently have carried out their field work in Biodiversity studies in the Greater Antilles and Belize. Orson is a Professor Emeritus of Botany and curator of Fungi from Virginia Tech, and is one of the leading mycologists in the United States. His wife, Hope, has authored a wild mushroom cookbook, taught classes, and supports Orson's work in the field. Basically, these people live and breathe mushrooms.
This comprehensive book has beautiful pictures, easy to understand keys, detailed drawings, interesting fungi information, listings of toxins, and useful information on habitat. This is not only a practical field guide but an interesting read into the world of wild mushrooms. In the wide range of selections available in the genre of field guides, I would recommend "North American Mushrooms" along with a couple area specific resources to round out a definitive package.
Understand what you are buying.......2006-08-23
This is a good book in the right hands. If you are looking for the definative book on mushrooms, it hasn't been published. The closest equivalent to definative is the David Arora Mushrooms Demystified. This book by Miller is a FIELD GUIDE (and maybe 1/5 the size and weight of Demystified), it is very, very short on the number of species covered ('only' hundreds out of thousands). Do not use this book to decide if you have harvested an edible mushroom. There are a great many edible mushrooms that look like a great many inedible and poisonious mushrooms and YOU CANNOT DO IDENTIFICATION BY COMPARING PICTURES.
Understand I am not in any way dissing this book; Miller knew his stuff, and this is an excellent guide. I bought a copy when it was first available, and it has already seen several days in the field. I learned about it from a well respected expert who had also purchased a copy. But I also already had a well used copy of Arora, and I have been foraging for many years, and I have gotten instruction from people like Larry Evens, Gary Lincoff and David Arora, and I STILL MAKE MISTAKES. The critical feature of a field guide is the Key that walks you through the identification process. This book (Miller) has a somewhat simplier key, that I can run through quickly (and larger type which is nice for old eyes in the middle of the forest). I would never eat off the identification from this book or any other. I have already found semi-common specimens where I know the species, that Miller doesn't cover. It's a nice addition to a library that also includes something specific for your region, plus Arora's Demystified. I would take the time to put a plastic cover on it, and it is a good bit heavier than the Audubon guide. However, if it comes to it, I will be carrying this guide in my backpack rather than any of the others I own (and I own a bunch of mushroom books).
Over six hundred color photos and line drawings offer important identification keys .......2006-07-18
If only one field guide to North American mushrooms is to be obtained for a reference holding, make it NORTH AMERICAN MUSHROOMS: A FIELD GUIDE TO EDIBLE AND INEDIBLE FUNGI. Over six hundred color photos and line drawings offer important identification keys and a comprehensive survey of where and how to gather wild mushrooms. Pictorial keys throughout enhance suggestions for location and identification as well as culinary use, and come from one of the most respected mycologists in this country, also a professor of Botany and Curator of Fungi. He's written six books on fungi and has authored 105 new species new to science in his papers: his is a masterpiece including sturdy binding for solid field use.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
New Mushroom Guide.......2006-07-03
I like the format of this book with the description under the very nice pictures and the use of the scientific names rather then the common names like the Audubon Guide. It won't take the place of Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, but it will add to a library of field guides.
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.
Book Description
This new edition presents the latest cultivation and biotechnological advances that have contributed to the modernization of mushroom farming and the mushroom industry. It supplies each step in the complex mushroom cultivation process, exploring not only the "how" but also the "why". Professionals/scientists in related fields will obtain a much greater knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal benefits that mushrooms have to offer. This interdisciplinary approach will appeal to readers in a wide range of fields with its complete coverage of breeding, efficient cultivation practices, nutritional value, and medicinal/pharmaceutical utility. "Â… [This book] forms a comprehensive and up-to-date source of information for all interested in edible and medicinal mushrooms and their cultivation." - Peroonia, 2004 "...the personal practical experience, depth of knowledge, and enthusiasm of the authors shine in these chapters, which are to me the heart of the book..." - Mycological Research "If you are a mushroom enthusiast, you must have this complex book..." - Journal of Natural Products "To my knowledge, no past or current book comes closes to covering all the subjects considered in this book... - Solomon P. Wasser, in International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, Vol. 6 "The authors provide the readers with complete information about mushroom species cultivated commercially, world production of mushrooms, and use of various agricultural and industrial wastes as substratesÂ… Each valuable species of mushrooms is described in a thoroughly detailed manner. Several pages are devoted to each species with particular focus on the following subjects: Introduction, biological characteristics, requirements for mycelial growth, requirements for fruiting body foundation, cultivation methods, harvesting and processing, special cultivation practice, fruiting and liquid media (for same species), drying and storage, nutritional contents and medicinal properties (for same species), biological and compounds (for same species)Â… These chapters are very important. They contain complete information about modern cultivation and use of the most important culinary-medicinal mushrooms of the world. A very important conclusion for future readers can be found in the summary dedicated to species with regional appealÂ… The book is richly illustrated with more than 100 original photographs and figures. The book contains about 800 terms in the glossary, which is very useful, especially for amateurs and beginning scientistsÂ… The key difference between the new and the old version is that this latest edition has been expanded by more than 60%. Instead of eight chapters in the first edition, the new book contains 22 chaptersÂ… This is a well-written and thorough bookÂ…. I would strongly recommend this new edition of mushrooms without hesitation to industrial and medicinal mycologists, mushroom growers, botanists, plant pathologists, and professionals and scientists in related fieldsÂ…. I will use this book extensively, both in teaching mycology to university students and in experimental work in my laboratory. The value of this book cannot be overestimated. The potentially extensive use of this book can be recognized in universities, classrooms, laboratories, etc. This book is useful for beginning students through PhD studies and beyond. This book is a real encyclopedia of mushroom biology including cultivation, nutritional value, medicinal value, and environmental impact." - Solomon P. Wasser, in International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, Volume 6
Average customer rating:
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Mushrooms, Wild and Edible: A Seasonal Guide to the Most Easily Recognized Mushrooms
Vincent J. Marteka
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
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ASIN: 0393013561 |
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Wonderful Book.......2004-11-09
I've used this book for reference many times. It is a very comprehensive guide to mushrooms!
Average customer rating:
- A fine introduction to "la cuisine de champignons sauvages"
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The Mushroom Feast: A Celebration of All Edible Fungi With Over 250 Receipes
Jane Grigson
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1558211942 |
Amazon.com
With more than 250 recipes, Jane Grigson describes the preparation of the best fresh and preserved mushrooms (think lowfat). Besides the traditional use of mushrooms to enhance meat and vegetable dishes, edible fungi may be cooked in vine leaves, made into pâté, powdered, puréed into mushroom ketchup, baked into a flan (an Alice B. Toklas specialty), baked as a cake with cream sauce, and used in many other dishes that are too intriguing to resist. Grigson also explains the differences between good and poisonous mushrooms, relates some folk stories behind the recipes, and gives a history of mushroom cultivation that doesn't leave you in the dark about friendly fungi.
Book Description
Truffles…shiitakes…morels – mushrooms conjure visions of one of the most intriguing and subtle of all comestibles. The average cook can be mystified by how best to prepare these gastronomic treats, while epicures hunger for new ways to expand their repertoires. Jane Grigson presents more than 250 mushroom recipes – from simple to highly sophisticated – for soups, sauces, stuffings, main courses, and more that will satisfy the curiosity and appetites of mushroom dabblers and diehards alike. Included are helpful tips for selecting and preserving the best edible mushrooms (both wild and cultivated), the folklore behind the recipes, a brief history of mushroom cultivation, guides to distinguish edible from poisonous fungi for those who venture to pick their own, and charming line drawings of the twenty-one most common species. While poet W. H. Auden immortalized “dear Jane Grigson” in The Entertainment of the Senses, Grigson, an artiest in her trade, is best known for her own wonderful books on food. The Mushroom Feast is an indispensable classic for all those who love mushrooms as much as this rare find: a fine, timeless, literary cookbook. (6 X 9, 352 pages, illustrations)
Customer Reviews:
A fine introduction to "la cuisine de champignons sauvages".......2004-02-10
A collection of French wild mushroom recipes by British cooking writer Jane Grigson. This book is an excellent source of recipes and inspiration for the use of wild mushrooms, for chefs and experienced home cooks alike. The book has over 200 recipes for wild and domesticated mushrooms of all kinds, both as a main part of the dish and as an accompaniment to meat, fish, and fowl. Particularly useful is a section at the beginning covering some 20 species of mushrooms, describing the unique culinary properties of each and listing the recipes that would suit them best. I particularly like the fact that this book covers not only the "usual suspects", that is, cultivated agaricus, porcini, chanterelles, morels, truffles, etc, but also covers less well-known wild mushrooms like fairy-ring mushrooms, blewitts, grisettes, russulas, etc.
The recipes in "The Mushroom Feast" bear the unmistakable stamp of pre-nouvelle French haute-cuisine (though the book also has a whole chapter of Asian-inspired recipes as well). This has its good and bad sides - good in the sense that the mushrooms are used in in the context of tasty "gourmet" European cooking that I find does justice to the intense flavor of wild mushrooms, but not so good in the sense that it often calls for sauces that are richer in butter, cream, and roux than they need to be. However, with a basic knowledge of sauce-making technique, one can easily turn these into simple reduction sauces that don't overpower the rest of the ingredients.
Some of the editorial reviews mention that this book is a useful guide to distinguish edible and poisonous mushrooms. This book is not, in fact, useful as a field guide and inexperienced persons who go out and gather mushrooms for the table using this book as their only guide do so at their peril! If you are going to be cooking with the mushrooms in this book, one first needs to get some experience in identification of wild mushrooms, or stick with the wild mushrooms you can buy from your local gourmet grocery or farmers' market.
All in all, this is a book that belongs on the shelf of anybody who likes to cook with wild mushrooms.
Book Description
This step-by-step guide introduces the beginning mushroom cultivator to everything he needs to know, from sterile culture procedures to indoor bottle gardens to indoor/outdoor compost gardens. Ten chapters cover equipment, growing media, compost, small indoor quantities, starting cultures, and incubation. Black-and-white line drawings and half-tones complement the 16 full color photos taken by the author, founder of the mail order business Mushroom People.
Customer Reviews:
Not Quite Worth The Price.......2000-12-27
Apparently, this book was written to cater to those interested in hallucinogenic fungi. I initially bought this book in the hopes that it would teach me how to set up a cultivation operation focused primarily on edible, gourmet mushrooms. What I got instead was a poorly organized book rife with errors. The text has almost nothing to say about growing edible mushrooms. Rather, it is basically little more than a souped-up underground manual for the cultivation of hallucinogenic or so-called 'magic' mushrooms.
To demonstrate how erroneous this book is, the author begins the book by saying that fungi are plants! As any good student of biology knows, fungi lack chlorophyll, thus can not be considered plants, and occupy their own, separate kingdom. These and other gross errors throughout the text make it unfit as a starting point for those interested in mushroom cultivation.
The book is poorly organized, and places way too much emphasis on the psilocybe mushrooms, with passing reference to the cultivation of Pleurotus (oyster) mushrooms. In addition to some gratuitous color photos of a variety of Psilocybe mushrooms, and a few poorly placed black and white photos, this unremarkable book comes without an index, references, or supplementary materials. Furthermore, for the money you spend, you will not get much more than eighty six pages devoted to terse methods for locating, identifying, and cultivating the Psilocybe mushrooms (and this even is at a very low level).
The title of this book should actually be: 'Growing Hallucinogenic Mushrooms'. For those interested in Psilocybe mushrooms, this book may serve as an adequate reference. For individuals interested in the edible and gourmet mushrooms, a good starting point is Paul Stamets' utilitarian book 'The Mushroom Cultivator' and his comprehensive, though sometimes off-beat 'Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms'.
Mushrooms Galore!.......2000-08-04
This is a great book, and at no. 137,000 this Bob Harris' book on Mushrooms seems all set to pass the other Bob Harris' book on Chomskian analysis of how dumb all those journalists are, excepting of course Mssrs. Cohen and Solomon.
Growing Wild Mushrooms.......2000-03-30
Growing Wild Mushrooms is a good book for a biggining Mycologist. It runs through the basic procedures from making an agar medium to harvesting. But what makes this book worth a four star rating is it's wonderful color photos. It's one thing to read text, but quite another to to see clear illustrations. I would recocgmend this book to any aspiring Mycologist
Average customer rating:
- Quirky, Informative, Readable
- FANTASTIC !!!
- An unusual enthusiasm,wonderfully shared.
- A terrific read
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In The Company Of Mushrooms: A Biologist's Tale
Elio Schaechter
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
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The Fifth Kingdom
ASIN: 0674445554 |
Amazon.com
Call them the foot soldiers of the forest floor. Unassuming and prolific, mushrooms clear a path for new life by expertly and efficiently recycling accumulated dead matter, from the tiniest leaf to the tallest tree. It may sound like a dirty, thankless job, but as microbiologist and author Elio Schaechter enthusiastically notes, we should be singing praises to the fungi of the Earth; without them, all but the tallest of creatures would be buried under a global blanket of decomposing matter. Schaechter is obviously fascinated by his subject, and his spirit is contagious, making In the Company of Mushrooms as entertaining as it is informative. Though the book serves as a guide to hunting, identifying, and classifying mushrooms--including where to look, what tools are necessary, and how to discern the flavorful from the deadly--its primary aim is to convey the wonders of the fungi world and its essential function in nature. Along the way Schaechter discusses the history of the mushroom and its role in the diets and healing practices of both ancient and modern cultures. He also offers such delectable tidbits as the fact that fungi are more closely related to humans than plants on the evolutionary scale. Mycology has never been so engaging.
Book Description
We might slice them into a salad, savor them in a sauce, wonder at their power to intoxicate or poison, marvel at their multifarious presence in the forest--but few of us realize that mushrooms, humbly thriving on decay, are crucial to life on Earth as we know it. In this book a distinguished biologist, long intrigued by the secret life of fungi, reveals the power of these curious organisms--not quite animal, not quite plant--to enchant and instruct, to nourish and make way for all sorts of superior forms of nature.
In a style at once learned and quirky, personal and commanding, Elio Schaechter imparts the fascinating minutiae and the weighty implications of his subject--a primarily microscopic life form that nonetheless accounts for up to two tons of matter for every human on the planet. He shows us how fungi, the great decomposers, recycle most of the world's vegetable matter--from a blade of grass to a strapping tree--and thus prevent us from sinking under ever-accumulating masses of decaying matter.
With the same expertise and contagious enthusiasm that he brings to the biology of mushrooms, Schaechter conveys the allure of the mushroom hunt. Drawing on his own experience as well as that of seasoned pickers and amateur mycologists, he explains when and where to find mushrooms, how they are cultivated, and how they are used in various cultures. From the delectable to the merely tolerable, from the hallucinogenic to the deadly, a wide variety of mushrooms are covered in this spirited presentation.
Customer Reviews:
Quirky, Informative, Readable.......2000-10-21
"In the Company of Mushrooms" is one of those quirky, informative, and eminently readable natural history books that inhabits the same sub-genre as "The Infinite River", "Near Horizons", and "Rats, Lice, and History". Even though I'm not a mushroom hunter myself, I enjoyed reading Schaechter's tale of mushrooms that can wreck trains, emit toxic fumes that have been used for rocket fuel, and send otherwise ordinary humans into gastronmical ecstasies (or gastrointestinal agonies, depending on the species). The author points out that you can eat any mushroom once, and then goes on to quote, "There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters."
If you enjoy the thrill of a morel hunt and its tasty aftermath, or are an armchair naturalist who would like to read a well-written investigation into the secret life of fungi, "In the Company of Mushrooms" will both nourish and instruct you. Just remember that there are two tons of fungi for every human on the planet!
FANTASTIC !!!.......1999-10-08
As a 'shroomer' of some years, I have collected more than my share of mushroom field guides, but have alway wanted to know more than simply how to identify mushrooms. This is the perfect book for that purpose. Professor Scaechter covers everything and more, from history to language to cooking to biology to chemistry to toxins, and then onward to all kinds of interesting facts and insights that I wouldn't even have thought of asking about.
Buy the field guides, of course, but buy this book if you love mushrooms and mushrooming.
An unusual enthusiasm,wonderfully shared........1998-01-07
The author is one of those rare souls who can take an unpromising topic and, through some alchemy of affection and skill, render it not only palatable but positively fascinating.
Professor Schaechter is a lover of mushrooms. In his hands these seemingly ignoble denizens of rotting tree trunks and forest floors, neither plants nor animals, become not only interesting, but beautiful as well. He considers the biology and history of the mushroom, the uses and dangers; the entire interrelationship of human and fungus in fact, in a warm and engaging narrative style which brings the reader along for a most enjoyable biology lesson. Every branch of learning should have an Elio Schaechter.
(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)
A terrific read.......1997-07-10
A terrific read not only for mushroom lovers but also for all nature lovers and for just the plain curious. Highly recommended for all public libraries.
Gretchen Falk, Reference Librarian, Park Forest Public Library
Average customer rating:
- Mushrooms Illustrated Beautifully
- Great starter book
- The Mushroom book
- Excellent book for the beginner
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Mushroom Book
Anna Del Conte
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
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Mushrooms of Colorado and the Southern Rocky Mountains
ASIN: 0789410737 |
Customer Reviews:
Mushrooms Illustrated Beautifully.......2003-08-20
This book is easy to follow and is sooooooo helpful and educational. It sure has peaked my interst in taking woodsy walks. I recommend this book and the seller highly. Thanks!
Great starter book.......2002-10-21
I bought another book on mushroom identification at the bookstore. I didnt "plan" to buy it when I was there but I had always been secretly curious about wild mushrooms. That first book wasn't all that good so it led me to the local library in search of better illustrated and more detailed mushroom books. This book has great pictures and discriptions. I was simply amazed at the amount and quality of wild mushrooms available close to my home. As it turns out this is one book that is directly related to my new mushroom collecting obsession. In a very short time I was comfortably collecting many varieties of wild mushrooms. Now, I want this copy for myself!
The Mushroom book.......1998-11-18
The mushroom book helps to distinguish between different types of mushrooms
Excellent book for the beginner.......1998-11-04
This book is an excellent book for a beginner in mushroom identification or a casual nature-lover. The colour photographs are pleasing to look at, which is always a bonus for a beginner; and the science is easy. It even has a section with recipes for any good fungi you find.
The points it falls down on are its lack of text detail about each fungus, it does not include gill type or smell etc. Also the key is not suitable for use in the field because the spore colour is a major part of it, which is not readily observed in the field. But of course this isn't really a field guide, it is far too big to take out(although having said that I have done so).
Overall this is a very good book.
Average customer rating:
- An Optional Addition to the Mycological Library
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Mycology in Sustainable Development: Expanding Concepts, Vanishing Borders
Manufacturer: Parkway Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1887905014 |
Book Description
This book contains the proceedings of The Mycology in Sustainable Development Workshop in 14 chapters organized by subject. Four chapters discuss the management of the Pine mushroom "matsutake" (Tricholoma magnivelare) as a model for the emergence and management of non-timber forest products. The value of sustainably harvesting "matsutake" could exceed the value of logging trees in some parts of North America. Three chapters provide an overview of the monitoring and inventory of fungal biological diversity, in order to determine methods for successful sustainable development in each North American country. In the section entitled Environmentally Friendly Technologies, authors discuss the use of mycorrhizae in land restoration, fungi as biological control agents of weeds, and endophytes as instruments of ecological management. Finally, several authors consider the potential for cultivation of novel fungal products and the use of fungi in pharmaceutical bioprospecting.
The Mycology in Sustainable Development Workshop brought together Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. scientists involved in establishing the biological bases for integrating fungi into sustainable plans and practices. The workshop facilitated the exchange of ideas and experiences, analysis of current practices, and the charting of future goals for successfully utilizing and integrating fungi in sustainable development. This book reflects these developments.
Differences between the perspectives of the three North American countries are highlighted, but a regional viewpoint is also included that encompasses common economic and environmental concerns of these convergent economies. Authors discuss how current and proposed legislation, as well as public perception, affect the ability of each Region to include fungi, a grossly underused resource, in sustainable land management. Issues of economic reciprocity and property rights are addressed in many of the chapters. In addition to providing a unique approach to this timely subject, several of these chapters are comprehensive, up-to-date reviews of a specific subject area.
This book will be of interest and use to a broad audience ranging from biologists and other scientists to administrators and policy-makers.
Customer Reviews:
An Optional Addition to the Mycological Library.......2001-11-07
Given that virtually all of the papers in this book juxtapose mycorrhizal fungi with Pacific Rim forests, the title of this book should really be `Mycorrhizae in Sustainable Agro-Forestry'. The majority of the chapters focus on the mycorrhizae and forestry, and the book as a whole attempts to make a strong case for greater research, development, and support for applied mycorrhizal research. Chapela and Palm introduce the papers by intelligently and eloquently stating the need for and practical use of sustainable development while at the same time providing background on the individual papers.
That said, the first three chapters provide a detailed history of wildcrafting of Matsutake mushrooms in British Columbia, the US Pacific Northwest, and Mexico, and elaborate upon the attempts of government and conservationists to regulate the harvest of this non-timber forest product so as to promote resource conservation and sustainable use of the regional forests. Several chapters further elaborate various aspects related to mycorrhizal fungi- from their plant associations and recent attempts to inventory plant-fungal associations to the utilization of mycorrhizae in land reclamation and biocontrol of weedy trees and grasses.
The last two chapters are quite possibly the most interesting part of the book and briefly present two attempts toward developing new markets for fungal products. In these chapters, we learn of successful attempts by Central American farmers to organincally cultivate mushrooms, principally Pleurotus species, using various types of agricultural waste. We also learn of attempts in many lesser developed nations to exploit their fungal bioresources and the efforts underway to make certain that developing nations and indigenous peoples reap their fair share of the proceeds from bioprospecting. The final chapter also argues that bioprospecting is a viable means of conservation and sustainable development.
While the book is interesting, the text could be taken more seriously had the editors only acknowledged the fundamental challenges of sustainable myco-resource utilization, fungal inventory monitoring, and development of fungal-based biological control agents. In their defense, more than a few of the contributors do point out the inherent challenges associated with management of sustainable development and fungal inventory research. Nonetheless the reader gets very few successes and a lot of dubious triumphs from the field of mycorrhizal ecology. In addition, the researchers conveniently neglect to state two very important points about the Matsutake myco-industry. Since Japan is the major market for Matsutake, this fledgling myco-industry would face ruin if this market collapsed. Furthermore, the opening of new Matsutake reservoirs in Russia, Central and South America continuously expands the supply-side while the demand-side has remained relatively constant. This in turn has had the obvious effect of lowering supply-side prices worldwide. As a result, although wildcrafting of Matsutakes and other botanicals is an important source of income in impoverished forest communities, it can not be looked upon as a key driver of sustainable development in these rural regions.
Although Chapela and Palm's Mycology in Sustainable Development starts off brilliantly, it quickly devolves into yet another thinly veiled plea for more funding for the contributors' pet research projects. The book's premise that the fungal kingdom has much to offer the worthwhile cause of sustainable development is quickly overpowered by paper after paper highlighting some dubious applications involving mycorrhizal fungi. Given the `global' title of the book, I was rather dismayed at the limited number of regions and countries represented and the overwhelming emphasis on the mycorrhizae. Granted, the mycorrhizae are a neglected area of research and do have much to offer the worthy cause of sustainable development. However, it would have been nice to see other classes of fungi and examples of sustainable development using the fungi in other regions of the world, particularly Africa and Asia, given an equivalent amount of exposure. Moreover, I was extremely dismayed at the paucity of information on edible mushrooms other than expensive exotics like Matsutake, given their often critical role in the health and nutrition of many of the world's communities and their extraordinary potential for global environmental improvement.
In conclusion, although this book contains some interesting information, it ultimately remains an optional addition to the library of the applied mycologist.
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