Mushrooms by Harding, Patrick ( Author ) ON Sep-06-2004, Paperback

by Patrick Harding

The ideal portable companion, the world-renowned Collins Gem series returns with a fresh new look and updated material.


This is the perfect pocket guide for nature and foraging enthusiasts keen to identify the most commonly found mushrooms and toadstools in Britain and northern Europe.


Authoritative text, beautiful photographs and detailed illustrations show the distinguishing features of each mushroom and toadstool, including details of size, habitat and when it can be found, whether it is edible or poisonous and most importantly, which similar species it can be confused with and why.


This new edition builds on the strengths of the unrivalled original, now expanded to include over 240 species of mushroom and toadstool.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Outdoors, Natural History

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2003

Reviews

[nemo ☠️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i bought this book for three reasons:
1) because perhaps learning about fungi would help me get over my fear of it;
2) i basically want to learn about everything ever anyway,
3) it is very small so i can carry it around with me and read it if i am in an awkward social situation.

i have done number 3) many times. once someone came up to me and went, "aren't you the mushroom guy at that party?" yes. yes, i am the mushroom guy. the fun-guy, if you will.

personal anecdotes aside, this is a very good, portable guide to wild fungi and is both clear and concise. although, if you wanted to seriously forage for mushrooms instead of just wanting to identify fungi you see in the woods out of an academic interest, then mushrooms should probably be checked against a larger book to make sure you accidentally aren't picking something extremely poisonous, lol

[Honey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid 3.5. What a delightful gem of a book. While it’s very basic, it provides good companion for foraging and fungi spotting.

[Syd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative for such a smol book.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideal for out and about identifying.

[Document Of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best mini mushroom guide around!

[Alana Godfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to dip into and find out about specific types of mushroom. The guide at the start really helps with identification whereby you can identify certain features and flick to specific pages to see if a mushroom matches the entry. So much is packed into such a small book!

[Lee Broderick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have bigger pockets, take The River Cottage Mushroom Handbook , but otherwise this is a fine guide for initial identification of fungi in the field. All of which should then be double-checked against something more comprehensive such as Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe .

[Anastassiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is of excellent quality physically- great to carry around when mushroom picking. The guide is nicely written, good photos. Boletes and chanterelles here I come!!