Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest: A Simple Guide to Common Mushrooms (Mushroom Guides) Paperback – March 13, 2014

I am a fairly new mushroom hunter. I have a few other books on mushrooms now - including big fat heavy ones, and they all have their good and not so good perks. Fist of all, I purchased this book for the midwest mushrooms ID. I needed a smaller book to take on walks, with quick and easy look-up of the species. I am interrested in finding mushrooms I can eat safely, and to photograph some cool unusual types. This book has these things, and more ways to easily ID the mushrooms. There are a lot of nice color pictures, sometimes 3 or 4 on a page. The book starts with basic catagories of how the mushroom looks, and puts them into color coded sections for quick look-up. There are little picture icons on the upper L side of the page as"cap & stem with gills" and on the top R of the page there are 2 more little picture icons such as a "tree" or "stump' or "ground debris" and another icon picture for the season it is found....Wow, it's how I would have arranged this book for beginners. It also has KEY ID features "highlighted in green" within the text descriptions and each mushroom has a -compare- (with other look-alikes) notes. At the front of the book, it goes thru the top edibles and top toxics. Throughout the book, there is also a skull and crossbones right on the pictures of toxic varieties. The pictures are very informative, shows the tops and underside of the mushrooms, with the length and colors of the stems, and close-ups of unusual underside pores or gills, etc. Spore print colors are given for all mushrooms listed. I will still use my huge bible mushroom books, but this little book will be the one that is in my pocket the most often. Totally worth it for me, a great time saver to cut to the chase, gives you enough info when you are in the field, I Love the quick reference and color coding, and the little picture icons, as I am a visual learner anyway. By the way - the book is 4 1/2" x 6", and 1/2" deep, it weighs in at about 9.5 oz. The paper is a nice heavy glossy paper, for lots of wear and tear, and if you get it kinda wet on those damp days, as mushrooms like it after it rains....Bring you shrooms home to make a spore print!

Well set up

Pictures

This book is what it says it is, a simple guide. I purchased it as a possible reference to be used by a novice shroomer who asked me to teach him about "pickin' shrooms." It happens to be a book that I do not have in my own collection. The individual will have access to my library as well. This book has an excellent introduction--a condensed version of Arora's tome--yet quite satisfactory. The numerous photos are of very high quality and about as useful as photos can be. Its content is given in simple terms with further explanations of terms where necessary. That in itself is very helpful to the beginner/intermediate mushroom harvester. Its size, about hand size, makes it easy to pack along. I believe this book to be very helpful if used in conjunction with other field guides. My only concern might be whether the book's binding will hold up after much use in the field. It appears to be reinforced, but time will tell.

Describes choice edibles, toxic mushrooms, and a variety of mushrooms in between. If you're new to mushroom identification and foraging, this should be your first book in my opinion. Every page is filled with important info. No filler like some books about edibles.

Best field guide on the market dedicated to Upper Midwestern mushrooms. Introductory chapter is a clear, detailed succinct description of mushroom/fungus shapes and methods of identification. High resolution and wide ranging pictures. The selection of which mushrooms to include was also quite shrewd as virtually all mushrooms I have seen in the region can be found in this book. Perhaps most important, the logical organization of the book by general shapes and fungus location (versus Latin name for example) makes it a practical way for beginners and intermediate mycologists to identify or locate mushrooms. The text contains good detIl and also helpful hints on how to distinguish the mushroom from others commonly confused with it. Well done authors!

Great field reference for hunting mushrooms but it is not the only thing youll want to use. The book lacks multuple puctures for each mushroom which can make properly identifying just from the book difficult. However using it to put yourself in the ball park then some googling when you get home works great. Haven't poisoned me or my family yet at least!

Good little reference guide, but not anywhere near as descriptive/informative as I'd like. Good for a beginner who is just starting to attempt to identify mushrooms and isn't looking to harvest and try every single mushroom they come across. Not really worthwhile for the advanced mushroom hunter as there are much better guides out there. I do like the size though, it's much more portable than a big book, but there again lies the problem - not enough info in this one.

The book is nicely divided up by first common edibles, then common toxics, and then other commonly encountered mushrooms by description. It's compact and fits in my pocket or picking basket. Far from being comprehensive but is great for someone learning mushrooms in the Midwest. I'm in Manitoba and most of the mushrooms in this book also grow here.Great pictures and concise text. I quite like it.