Customer Reviews

Mushrooms of Hawai'i: An Identification Guide

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

 

 

For anyone familiar with mushroom gathering in temperate zones, Hawaii would seem to offer scant picking . . . until you pick up MUSHROOMS OF HAWAII. Unbelievable! The mushrooms in Hawaii are harder to find, yes. Some are very different from what you're likely to encounter on the mainland. Some are old friends: morels. Others are well known, colorful enemies: Amanita muscaria. All are beautifully illustrated. Even if you aren't a hunter of wild mushrooms, the photographs alone will have you entranced. And there's a lot else in these pages as well, from recipes, to descriptions of the places where the elusive fungi grow. The bibliography is excellent, providing plenty of further reading for the aficionado and testimony to the careful research that went into this work. Is there anything wrong with it? I do have one complaint. It's much too nice to pack on a field trip. Maybe the authors will come out soon with a small field guide to take along. That way I can leave this volume safe at home where I can go over those great photos at my leisure and not worry about what might happen to the book when stuffed into a knapsack.

This is a decent book, but I find many, many mushrooms which simply aren't represented. I also dislike the organization by vegetation zone; there's simply too much crossover in a place like Hawaii. There's no taxonomy key either, so I find myself falling back to the aging standard: Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi

My grandson, Jason, had the priviledge to know the author, a professor at University of Hawaii, while he was achieving his degree. He was so impressed with him. Jason now is in his third year of med school in Honolulu.
I am looking forward to painting some of these wonderful specimens. Previously, I have already painted over 2,000 paintings of mushrooms!
Warm wishes, Leona Julian