The Mushroom Guide and Identifier: The Ultimate Guide to Identifying, Picking and Using Mushrooms

Product Information

Many people come into mycology via a desire to try eating something a little more exotic than the shop bought mushroom. There are many edible species and they can have tastes and textures quite unlike the cultivated species. Hunting for edibles can be a wonderful experience but there are several rules to follow if your hunt is to have a happy outcome: Regional mushroom identification books are focused, generally have more pictures, and are usually easier to use – a lot of this is because they are smaller. When it comes to identification, though, it is best practice to have more than one book. There is no one perfect guide for everyone. Mushroom foraging is a rewarding hobby, allowing you to not only find food in the wild, but also develop a skill connecting you to past generations. It can be a fun and rewarding challenge on its own merits, a way to supplement your diet with unique flavors, or even preparation for a cinematic survivalist situation.

Gathering and cooking wild fungi is great fun, especially as shared fungus feast. But never eat any that you cannot identify with confidence. There are a lot of poisonous fungi out there. Foraging for wild mushrooms requires continuous learning and ongoing education. Here are some additional resources and precautions to enhance your mushroom foraging journey: Good mushroom identification books are trustworthy, detailed, and easy to understand. This can be difficult to find among the great swathe of foraging books available. It seems every forager thinks they can create a mushroom foraging book — there are so many self-published guides online. Some are fine, but when it comes to mushroom identification books, you really want the top-notch, no mistakes possible, reference guide. Regional Mushroom Identification Books are the best!

Developing the skills to find fungi requires slowness, not speed. This guide provides the necessary information for the safe collection of fungi, and is essential reading for fungus enthusiasts, ecologists, conservationists, medical professionals and anyone interested in the natural world. Unfortunately, some readers find the book’s organization counter-intuitive or cumbersome, making its use for ID in the field difficult, and some editions have a few problematic errors. And while this book includes over 700 species, in attempting to cover an entire continent, it must inevitably leave out many species. Comparing the actual fungi you find with the photos or paintings in your field guide will soon show the value of owning more than one guide. Each guide may have a different list of species and some will have better illustrations of a particular species than another. Most mycologists soon build up a small library of picture books! Using a digital camera to photograph specimens or trying your hand at making paintings of them and building up your own catalogue of illustrations is highly recommended also. Once you are more confident of the commoner species then there are a number of more specialist works, usually dealing with a specific group of fungi and this is often the best way to really make progress, by concentrating on a particular group which you find especially attractive or interesting. Start with the Most Common Edible Species: Begin your foraging journey by focusing on the most common edible mushroom species. This reduces the risk of misidentification and increases your chances of finding edible mushrooms. Nearly 2400 species are illustrated in full colour, with detailed notes on how to correctly identify them, including details of similar, confusing species.

Characteristics: Shell-shaped cap varying in hue from cream to grey-blue, with a white underpart and short, stubby stem.

Gary Lincoff's book " The Complete Mushroom Hunter," offers a wide overview of the mushroom foraging world, plus the chance to learn from one of the best. Anyone who is more inerested in the kitchen than the forest will want to opt for " Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide" instead. What to Look for in Mushroom Books ID and Photos If you want to enjoy foraging (and cooking) this book will educate you to identify desirable species. Central to the philosophy of this book is that building comprehensive knowledge reduces both poisoning risk and environmental harm." Many species can only be distinguished with certainty by using a microscope to examine their spores and other microscopic structures, or by the application of specific chemicals to produce colour reactions. More technical monographs are needed for these. Not only do we get stunning images focused on the details required for aiding identification, plus detailed information on the chosen ten edibles, but more importantly we also get a variety of images and information on their commonly mistaken and poisonous lookalikes, which is fantastic."

Learn the Distinctive Characteristics: Familiarize yourself with the distinctive characteristics of edible mushrooms that you intend to forage. Look for specific features such as cap shape, color, gill structure, stem characteristics, and any unique identifying marks.

Share this article

Mushrooms is my personal take on the world of fungi in Britain, about the pleasures of searching for mushrooms and toadstools, and why they matter. I have written it as a narrative, in current TV parlance as a ‘journey’, beginning with the extraordinary diversity of fungi and the ways in which they exploit the natural world to the history of the fungus foray and the controversy over gathering wild mushrooms for the pot. In the process I zoom in on the nature of names, both Latin and English, at the places which hold the greatest diversity of fungi, and our attempts to conserve rare and vanishing fungi. It is, I hope, a refreshing and amusing look at this ‘third world’ of life, written without jargon and in lively style. I hope it can be read with pleasure by anyone. It is full of lovely colour photographs. The British Isles are home to a diverse array of edible mushroom species. Here are some of the most common and spectacular wild mushroom species found in the UK: Forget about the ‘little brown fungi’ for now. Try getting to know an accessible group such as the waxcaps or the boletes, or the puffballs and their ‘relatives’. It will teach you a lot about the differences between species and the places to look for them. Research Local Mushroom Varieties: Each region of the UK has its own unique mushroom species and ecosystems. Research the local mushroom varieties that grow in your area to gain a better understanding of what to look for during your foraging expeditions.