Customer Reviews

Mushrooms Demystified

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

From the beginner to the expert, this book contains enough information to keep both satisfied. It can even make the beginner feel like an expert after a while! It is entertaining, interesting and filled with information that is simply unavailable elsewhere. Often I find myself reading it for the sheer pleasure of learning about mushrooms. It is amazingly comprehensive for a book that is supposed to be from the west coast. I live in the east and I find it incredibly useful. Often other books are incomplete or vague in their descriptions and this one steps in to fill the gaps. If there is one flaw with this book it is the lack of pictures. Often I consult other books to match a mushroom to the picture and get an idea of what it might be. Then this book helps to narrow it down to an exact species and supplies more information than most other books combined. If you are interested in hunting mushrooms then I can see no reason why you should not own this book...END

This is probably the best field guide ever done on the subject. Although I was a neurobiology student in grad school, I had an interest in mycology and took every mycology, lichenology, and non-vascular plant course offered at San Francisco State by the great mycologist, Dr. Harry Thiers, so I've had instruction in the subject by the best. And although the academic specialists have done better books on the individual genera, this is still the best overall "nature guide" type book. Just the photographs themselves are worth the price of the book, because they're gorgeous. There is also plenty of information on other topics besides the description and identification material, such as how fungi reproduce, their distribution and ecology, edibility and toxicology, and many other interesting subjects.

The one criticism I've heard about the book from the professional mycologists is that Arora did not do microscopic analysis on his specimens so as to actually prove what species it is. If you approach the book from the standpoint of this being the best book on the art and science of mushroom identification based on macroscopically observable features, you will be fine. It is Arora's expertise in this aspect of mycology and the detailed and clear descriptions of the species for identification purposes that is exceptional about this guide.

This is one of my all time favorite mushroom guides. Aurora combines comprehensive info on mushrooms along with witty humor. The book contains detailed descriptions of a lot of different species, including microscopic details. This isn't the book for you if you want a lot of nice colored photos, but if you can use a dichotomous key you'll be all set!

Huge volume, very complete. For beginners through true mycophiles. As a companion I suggest the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms. With these two books you could rule the world, or at least idetify most North American mushrooms. I highly value my copy.

I love this book.

I am a near total beginner. My previous experience was looking at chanterelles and king boletes with an experienced mushroomer.

My few lessons kept me grazing during a long wet packing trip. I brought home pictures of mushrooms I thought were interesting. This book helped me get started on identifying them.

NOTE - DO NOT IDENTIFY USING PICTURES, USE THE ID GUIDES IN THE BOOK

Frankly, it is the identification guides that are most valuable to me as a beginner. Without them, I'd be tempted to use pictures in a pocket guide. That works fine for fauna, but can be fatal for fungi.

My experience with the book itself is that I am goal oriented when I pick it up. "What is that one?" I then find myself having fun browsing through the book. It just draws me in. I love the parts saying "edible, but not worth it" or "supposedly edible, but I never cared to try".

I wouldn't expect kids to enjoy this book, but they're generally too impulsive to trust around unknown fungi anyway.

Mushrooms Demystified is the most useful single book I know of on the subject. The dicotomous keys are a powerful identification tool, and the descriptions are right on target. From beginning concepts such as "What is a fungus?" to technical microscopic details, Mushrooms Demystified is accurate and easy to understand. Humor and wit round out the text which is wonderfully well written. It is not a picture book, but it does have enough pictures to make a positive identification. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the intriguing kingdom of fungi. Im wearing out my second copy.

Not only is this book the most comprehensive and easiest to use guide on the market, it's necessary! *DO NOT* pick wild mushrooms to eat unless you own this book! As a mycologist of 25 years and gourmet cook, I relish wild mushroom dishes, but please: YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY MANY EDIBLE MUSHROOMS BY SIGHT ALONE! Spend the money to get this book and pick safely. I'm so glad it's finally fall, I'm going out to pick a basket of chantrelles for dinner! Yeay!!!!