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North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (Falconguide) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Orson K. Miller, Hope Miller
Publisher: Falcon
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $10.10
You Save: $15.85 (61%)
New (30) Used (8) from $10.10
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 46067
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 592
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0762731095
Dewey Decimal Number: 579.6097
EAN: 9780762731091
ASIN: 0762731095
Publication Date: May 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New may have remainder mark or slight shelfware
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Understand what you are buying August 22, 2006
Marshal Berthier (Colorado USA)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful
This is a good book in the right hands. If you are looking for the definative book on mushrooms, it hasn't been published. The closest equivalent to definative is the David Arora Mushrooms Demystified. This book by Miller is a FIELD GUIDE (and maybe 1/5 the size and weight of Demystified), it is very, very short on the number of species covered ('only' hundreds out of thousands). Do not use this book to decide if you have harvested an edible mushroom. There are a great many edible mushrooms that look like a great many inedible and poisonious mushrooms and YOU CANNOT DO IDENTIFICATION BY COMPARING PICTURES.
Understand I am not in any way dissing this book; Miller knew his stuff, and this is an excellent guide. I bought a copy when it was first available, and it has already seen several days in the field. I learned about it from a well respected expert who had also purchased a copy. But I also already had a well used copy of Arora, and I have been foraging for many years, and I have gotten instruction from people like Larry Evens, Gary Lincoff and David Arora, and I STILL MAKE MISTAKES. The critical feature of a field guide is the Key that walks you through the identification process. This book (Miller) has a somewhat simplier key, that I can run through quickly (and larger type which is nice for old eyes in the middle of the forest). I would never eat off the identification from this book or any other. I have already found semi-common specimens where I know the species, that Miller doesn't cover. It's a nice addition to a library that also includes something specific for your region, plus Arora's Demystified. I would take the time to put a plastic cover on it, and it is a good bit heavier than the Audubon guide. However, if it comes to it, I will be carrying this guide in my backpack rather than any of the others I own (and I own a bunch of mushroom books).
 Not Practical for the Common Hiker January 6, 2007
Al Smith (Maryville, TN USA)
15 out of 30 found this review helpful
This book has three fatal flaws that should prevent it from being in the library of any person without formal training in botany and/or mycology:
Flaw #1: Exclusive use of scientific names (Latin). Common names get only a passing mention and are often not included in the index.
Flaw #2: Identification key is based upon spore printing. The ID key for this book requires spore printing for most mushrooms as a first step. This requires removing the fruiting body, e.g. picking the mushroom just to ID it. Except for purposes of consumption it is illegal to harvest mushrooms in most U.S. National Parks. This book should be illegal too. I hate following in the footsteps of people who harvest mushrooms for purpose of identification. There is nothing more annoying than to discover the sole specimen on an entire hiking trail has already been taken/picked/cut/spore-printed by some inconsiderate hiker. Books like this one which encourage such behavior have no place in our society.
Flaw #3: The book doesn't include the "lower order" of fungi such as Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi. In my part of the world the Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi are among the most prolific and interesting of all fungi. The book is worthless to me for identification of those.
Don't buy this book if you feel as do I that harvesting mushrooms for the simple purpose of identification is not an Eco-friendly behavior.
New Mushroom Book June 5, 2006
T. Cox (Tennessee)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Yet another New Mushroom Book. This is a good overall book that covers a good cross section of fungi, some that were familiar to me and some that were not. Orson K. Miller has released other Mushroom books, and all are good, this one is no exception. If you are already into Mushrooms you most likely have a library of books, and you may feel that you don't need another, but I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in mushroom identification, it cover a lot of basics and seems to have updated, more current info, and scientific names.
 Over six hundred color photos and line drawings offer important identification keys July 18, 2006
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
If only one field guide to North American mushrooms is to be obtained for a reference holding, make it NORTH AMERICAN MUSHROOMS: A FIELD GUIDE TO EDIBLE AND INEDIBLE FUNGI. Over six hundred color photos and line drawings offer important identification keys and a comprehensive survey of where and how to gather wild mushrooms. Pictorial keys throughout enhance suggestions for location and identification as well as culinary use, and come from one of the most respected mycologists in this country, also a professor of Botany and Curator of Fungi. He's written six books on fungi and has authored 105 new species new to science in his papers: his is a masterpiece including sturdy binding for solid field use.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Practical field guide and interesting read August 25, 2006
Reader Views (Austin, Texas)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
Reviewed by Juanita Watson for Reader Views (8/06)
"North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi" is a comprehensive field guide that features most of the fungi one may encounter in the United States and Canada. This field guide is part of "A Falcon Guide" series and is a necessary asset to the library of any wild mushroom, or edible plant disciple.
"North American Mushrooms" is authored by the husband/wife team of mushroom enthusiasts. The Miller's have a long and extensive history in the world of fungi - they have worked all over North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia, and recently have carried out their field work in Biodiversity studies in the Greater Antilles and Belize. Orson is a Professor Emeritus of Botany and curator of Fungi from Virginia Tech, and is one of the leading mycologists in the United States. His wife, Hope, has authored a wild mushroom cookbook, taught classes, and supports Orson's work in the field. Basically, these people live and breathe mushrooms.
This comprehensive book has beautiful pictures, easy to understand keys, detailed drawings, interesting fungi information, listings of toxins, and useful information on habitat. This is not only a practical field guide but an interesting read into the world of wild mushrooms. In the wide range of selections available in the genre of field guides, I would recommend "North American Mushrooms" along with a couple area specific resources to round out a definitive package.
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