Product Description
More than 1,000 species of mushrooms described in detail. Over 700 paintings and drawings reveal subtle field marks that cannot be captured into photographs.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 5 reviews)

If you are beginning, start with this one.

We own several different guides. Each has it's own strength. I recommend this as the first guide for those beginning to identify MR/Fungi. It covers most of the basic MR/Fungi family, but is not encylopedic as Arora's 'Mushrooms Demystified' attempts to be, nor does it have the number of color photographs that either the Falcon Guide 'North American Mushrooms' or Audubon's Field Guide. But it's one of the easiest to use beginning with 48 (mostly color) plates, then branching off into related species.
October 21, 2007

A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America

Good up to date material. Good illustrations
January 03, 2007

2nd best mushroom book

The pictures in this guide are not quite as nice as in the audubon version but is still easy to use and a nice handy size for carrying in a pocket
February 23, 2006

Still a standard field guide to fungi

This field guide is nearly twenty years old, but there are so few field guides to fungi that it still remains a standard reference. Like all Peterson field guides, it is handy and compact and can easily be taken into the field and pored over with the mushrooms in their wild habitat. The text is detailed and accurate and a "similar species" section is very useful. However, this guide uses painted plates whereas amateurs generally find it easier to identify fungi by photographs. I personally find photographs more accurate, but enjoy paintings in their own right. In this case the paintings are pleasing and quite faithful.

Although this guide should be on every mushroom enthusiast's shelves, a better beginners guide might be Roger Phillips' photographic book which has now appeared in a revised edition (on Amazon.com: ISBN 1554071151). Phillips provides 1000 photographs compared to this guide's 700 illustrations. However, Phillips is rather large to take into the field except in a backpack. Bear in mind that no fungus guide is comprehensive - each treats a selection of species - so it is wise to have a good selection in order to be in with a chance of correct identification.

So, until a compact photographic guide to fungi appears, this tried and tested Peterson guide will continue to fill a niche in the mushroom hunter's library.
November 21, 2005

mushroom field guide

I found this book to be well illustrated. And although not as comprehensive as i'd hoped, it is still the most complete guide I have found. Overall, I feel it is well above average--and I'm quite hard to please!
July 04, 2000

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides)
by Gary H. Lincoff

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides (R))
by Lee Allen Peterson, Lee Allen Peterson, Roger Tory Peterson, Roger Tory Peterson

Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi
by David Arora

North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (Falconguide)
by Orson K. Miller, Hope Miller

Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America
by Roger Phillips