111 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The "Go To " Mushroom Guide, June 18, 2005
This review is from: Mushrooms Demystified (Paperback)
I own a lot of field guides for birds, insects, reptiles, wildflowers and on and on. If you are like me then you enjoy reading field guides like some people read novels. The usual field guides are just monotone dry descriptions and pictures. David Arora's book is apart from the rest. His descriptions are entertaining and witty and filled with good information. Just reading the descriptions is as entertaining as it gets for any book of any genre. The second edition is a door stopper of a book for size but there is very little if no fluff.
The first thing any botanical field guide should have is a good dichotomous key. Arora's book has a very good key. The photos are excellent and the color plates are spectacular. If you think you can identify a mushroom with just a photo then you are treading in dangerous waters. There are countless "Little Brown Mushrooms" that can hardly be distinguished by a photo. You need a key. The same mushroom can vary enormously depending on humidity and age of the specimen. One photo like in some other guides will hardly show all variations in a single mushroom. Photos are OK for other field guides describing birds or wildflowers but for mushrooms, a wrong choice could be life threatening. A photo of a Gomphus could look like a chanterelle. You will find yourself eating something more like cardboard instead of an epicurean delicacy. You could also think Omphalotus is a chanterelle based on a photo, making a deadly mistake. Arora's book will familiarize you with all the distinguishing characteristics that set the poisonous species apart from the edible. In spite of what I say about identifying mushrooms with photos , the black and white photos in the book do very well by showing the mushrooms in varying stages of maturity.
The book is also scientific by all standards. The species are listed in accepted phylogenetic order and not by color or size or other ambiguous sequences. Being scientific does not make it difficult for the amatuer though. Arora walks you through the identification process in a comprehensive and easy to follow manner for the most rank amatuer. This field guide should be only one among many if you are into mushrooms but will end up being your "go to" guide among the lot. For identifying fungi I reccommend "How to Identify Mushrooms to Genus V" Cultural and Developmental Features" by Roy Watling. For a good text about Fungi in general I reccommend "The Fifth Kingdom" by Bryce Kendrick.
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68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Huge!! Comprehensive, but has a few faults., May 9, 2001
This review is from: Mushrooms Demystified (Paperback)
This book really gets into those fungi!! I got this book for my wife and I to use as our complete reference book on mushrooms. The book is a little intimidating because it gets so in-depth. And definitely lacks in good pictures. However, after reading a lot in this book you really start to learn a deeper side to those mysterious fungi. Great humor and candor mixed in throughout the book. The step by step ID section has been right-on in helping to identify mushrooms. There are quite a few I have been unable to identify if only I had a great picture of it! Some of the Step by step groups are so extensive its easy to get lost in them without ever finding your mushroom. By far the the most complete book on mushrooms I've seen but probably not for the total beginner. I will be looking for a companion to this one with more color pictures to help. Don't get me wrong, if you want to really get into mushrooms, or already are into them, this book is a must.
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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely Done, July 1, 2005
This review is from: Mushrooms Demystified (Paperback)
This book is an essential desk-reference for mushroom enthusiasts. The extensive introduction includes articles on "fungophobia" (fear of eating wild mushrooms), mushroom biology, mushrooms and the environment, scientific names and classification, mushroom collecting, mushroom identification, directions on how to use keys, mushroom FAQs, LBMs (little brown mushrooms), habitats, and a list of 70 distinctive mushrooms. This material is followed by a general key to the major groups of mushrooms, and then over 800 pages of mushroom descriptions, organized according to the key, with additional specific keys for each major group. Brief articles are provided for each individual mushroom species, including scientific name, common names (if available), and descriptive information covering (where relevant) cap, gills, stalk, veil, spores, habitat and edibility. High quality black-and-white photographs are provided for many (though not all) species. There is also a section of color plates in the middle of the book referenced by name and page number to the articles in the text. End material includes articles on mushroom cookery, preservation, and toxins, a dictionary of scientific Latin relevant for mushroom study, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index. A metric/inch ruler is printed on the back cover as a useful measurement aid.
With its varied in-depth articles and large number of species covered, this book is a treasure-trove of information. It is not quite as visual as other large guides, since not all species have photos, and all the photos in the main text are black-and-white. This approach forces the user to rely on reading the details of the key, which is a very sound approach to identification. The first edition of the book was written solely about Californian mushrooms. In this edition, Arora has expanded his coverage to the continental United States, but he notes that many of his comments about habitat may be more relevant to California residents than others. The size and weight of the volume make it a bit unwieldy to carry into the field, but it makes a fine reference for study and identification once you've got the mushrooms back home.
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