Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the Northeast

Handy in-the-field identification guide Features the "Foolproof Five" Includes a useful identification flowchart The northeastern United States is home to an enormous variety of mushrooms--some delicious, some deadly. This handy in-the-field guide offers identification information for some 50 mushrooms that mushroom hunters are most likely to encounter in the wild: Parasol Mushroom, Delicious Lactarius, Sulphur Shelf, Giant Puffball. It also features detailed photographs illustrating the characteristics to look for when identifying mushrooms and natural history information--where they grow, when they appear, and the various forms they take.

Handy in-the-field identification guide

Features the foolproof five

Includes a useful identification flowchart

The northeastern United States is home to an enormous variety of mushrooms—some delicious, some deadly. This handy in-the-field guide offers identification information for some 50 mushrooms that mushroom hunters are most likely to encounter in the wild: Parasol Mushroom, Delicious Lactarius, Sulphur Shelf, Giant Puffball. It also features detailed photographs illustrating the characteristics to look for when identifying mushrooms and natural history information—where they grow, when they appear, and the various forms they take.

C. Leonard Fergus was a mycology professor at Pennsylvania State University. Charles Fergus is the author of Trees of Pennsylvania (0-8117-2092-6), Wildlife of Pennsylvania (0-8117-2899-4), Natural Pennsylvania (0-8117-2038-1), and a host of other books about the natural world.

Introduction......Page 6 Important Parts of Mushrooms......Page 12 Some Common Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the Northeast......Page 15 Identification Key......Page 19 Gilled Fungi......Page 21 Boletes......Page 52 Polypores......Page 59 Toothed Fungi......Page 64 Coral Fungi......Page 67 Club and Funnel Fungi......Page 69 Sponge and Saddle Fungi......Page 71 Puffballs......Page 74 Destroying Angel......Page 76 Mushrooms by Month of First Appearance......Page 82 References......Page 85 Acknowledgments......Page 87 This book is intended as a basic guide for persons untrained in mycology who wish to identify the common mushrooms that seem to appear from nowhere each year in lawns, fields, and woods.