Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi

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 ambigious 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 is indispensible for mushroom hunting on the west coast. I had a copy of the first edition for 10+ years and wore it to a scotch-taped frazzle. I finally treated myself to the second edition, and I'm so glad I did! This one has more species, more photos, and an expanded geographic scope (more info on SW and mountain states, and the rest of the US to a lesser extent).

Unfortunately, I recently moved to the southeast. I still turn to Arora for rough ID, but it can't be denied that Mushrooms Demystified is not as helpful in this area. But until I find a good comprehensive field guide to the region, MD will still be my standby.

you should have more than one field guide, and if you live in north america, Mushrooms Demystified should be one of them.this book is the best mushroom field guide i have used. It is the most informative and thorough. aurora gives more than ample descriptions of genus and individual species, helpful tips, background info, humor, everything. the photographs are excellent (although some are unfortunatly in black and white). it would be even more helpful if you happen to live on the west coast but i still consider it a must have for anywhere in north america. i use it in conjuction with Mushrooms of west virginia and the central appalachians by william c. roody and Mushroooms of northearstern North America by the Bessetes and David W. Fischer. i have also used Mushrooms of north america by orson K. Miller (a cursory field guide, nothing more), and george barron's northeastern mushroom guide (whatever the exact title is), which i srongly advise against buying (i returned it and now i'm going to give it a bad review as well)

This year I'm the president of the Colorado Mycological Society and I believe that this book is essential for any mushroom enthusiast! Personally, I have three of them (one for work, one for home, and one for my truck!) and am looking for another to give away as a gift (if someone sells a used one real cheap!). It is the most complete 'atlas' of mushroom identification that you can buy.

Check out my mushroom website at http://www.capsandstems.com

Fun and Fancy. Can't be beat, especially for the Pacific Northwest.