Customer Reviews

Mushrooms of North America

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Our yard, which is surrounded by swamps and a pine barren, is a haven for mushrooms: bright yellow ones that look like curdled egg yolk; morels in the spring (yummy); groups of flat-headed, long-stemmed mushrooms with black gills that turn into an inky sludge overnight (if you step into the sludge you're doomed), and shelves of multicolored fungi that grow on dead trees.

I figured it was time to consult a book on mushrooms, and this one is a doozy. "Mushrooms of North America" has over a thousand color photographs of mushrooms, along with detailed descriptions of its subjects.

The explanatory paragraphs include a description of the mushroom's cap, gills, stem, veil, and flesh. There is also information on the mushroom's odor, taste, spores, and habitat (including the season when it can be found). Additional comments are included on important matters such as edibility.

The introduction has directions on how to use this book. Novice mycologists like me are supposed start at the two-page "Beginner's Key" that illustrates some of the most common groups (genera) of mushrooms. So, let me go out and collect a mushroom and see if I can identify it from the "Beginner's Key"...

Unfortunately, my mushroom doesn't look like anything in the "Beginner's Key" but I have learned two things: (1) I need to collect the base of the mushroom in order to completely identify it. I can't just break the mushroom off at ground level; (2) spore color is an important identification key.

This book has directions on how to collect spores, but for the impatient it may be possible to scan through all thousand photographs and get a hit without waiting overnight for the spores to show up, which is what I did. What I thought were three distinct species of mushrooms all turned out to be Shaggy Manes (Coprinus comatus) in different stages of growth. According to the author, shaggy manes are edible and delicious when young, but the cap liquefies into such an inky mess, I think I'll give them a pass--at least until I become more familiar with fungi.

In spite of the fact that my mushroom's genus wasn't in the "Beginner's Key," I believe this book will be an important element in my mycological education. It's the most comprehensive identification guide I've yet found.

P.S. The bright yellow mushrooms in our yard are Jack O'Lanterns (Omphalotus illudens)- also not in the "Beginner's Key" but easily identified from their photograph and description. According to the author, it is "poisonous, but usually not fatal" so I'll restrain myself from eating this one, too.

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.

I have been a mushroom enthusiast for years now, but when I was given this fine book for my birthday, my excitement was doubled. The endless, clear, complete photos give all phases of the fungi you could find in the wild, not just a single photo or drawing. The written information is complete and easy to read. The glossary is amazing.The photos are so lovely you'd be proud to have them hanging in your house! The only drawback is it's too large to take into the field, but I always have it waiting for fast and certain identification at the end of a day.This is a "can't do without it" book for the mushroom hunter. His book on European mushrooms is equally fine.

This book is excellent to keep in the car during forays and cross reference with mushroom field guides. The pictures are almost 3 dimensional and most of them show the various stages of the fruit bodies. The photos also show with clarity, every part of the mushroom in detail in their true colors and variations. This affordable reissue of this highly regarded tome caused quite a clamor in my mycolgist club.

The photographs and descriptions are among the most useful we have in our collection of mushroom guides. Marvellous for amateur mycologists and veteran mushroom hunters alike.

I have a small library of dichotomous key books that I have collected over the 15 years I have been interested in mushrooms and this is the best new book on mycology I found it via the Prairie State Mushroom Club in Iowa that I am a member of. It has brief but valuable biological descriptive info supplemented by great photos showing immature button to mature stages of the 5 major genera: Amanita, Lacterus,Cortinaarius, and Boletus. In addition, it states for each species whether it is edible,not recommended, non-edible/poisonous. A good glossary and beginner's key of nomenclature and methods of spore,pilus,stipe identification. A "must have" book for any amateur or professional fungalist. Arnold Christian, Blue Grass, IA

I've hunted mushrooms for 30 years, and this is the best book I've seen for identifying the edibles.

To date this is the BEST 'mushroom identification book' that I own. I have used this book for the last 17 years and it has not let me down save for a couple of instances. I have the 1991 paperback edition that is quite easy to tug along on vacation, field trips, and back yards. Yes, the size makes it a tad inconvenient on long trips but having large, clear pictures and the identification points on the same or the page next to the picture makes rapid identification a lot easier. So in my opinion this more than makes up for the large size problem.

The author does state that for an accurate identification the ENTIRE specimen should be uprooted to use the base, spore colors etc as identifying points. Please be aware that in many parks and private property areas uprooting specimens is prohibited except by permission.

The pictures are quite clear and the author has identification keys that make the text very easy to follow. There are a couple of issues that I wish were fixed. First, the pictures are not taken in the field but in a studio with a bluish grey background. This helps because ALL parts of the mushroom are clearly visible but the background used diffues the color scheme of the specimen. In most cases this is no big deal I was easily able to identify specimens but in some cases I was led down the wrong path. Secondly, the key does not contain all specimens but that is understandable.

All in all I am very happy that I chanced upon this book in 1991. It has served me well all these years. In fact just this morning while working on my sprinkler heads I used this book to identify a specimen I had not seen before. I have checked out the new edition which is in hardback but I prefer my old reliable companion so I'll just keep it.

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!

As other comments have pointed out this book takes a different approach by photographing subjects in a lab against a standard background. These photographs, and associated scientific descriptions, really aid in mushroom identification. Most mushroom guides attempt to show perfect pristine images of mushrooms from flattering angles, which is great to look at but, for example, the ground up view of a destroying angel towering over the camera, while aesthetically pleasing, isnt likely to aid identification. Although images like these can have their worth, when every mushroom guide does it they become less useful.

In a nutshell this book is basically the equivalent of a photographic companion to mushrooms demystified. Which is itself a great book, but its own illustrations left much to be desired.