venerable New Savory Wild Mushroom (Margaret McKenny-Daniel Stuntz- Joe Ammirati), Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest (Steve Trudell-Joe Ammirati), the forthcoming revised edition of Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest (Steve Trudell), Mushrooms of the Northwest (Teresa Marrone- Drew Parker), Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key (Michael Beug), and Mushrooms of Western Canada (titled Mushrooms of Northwest North America in the USA; Helene Schalkwijk- Barendsen). I’m not including David Arora’s two books, Mushrooms Demystified and All that the Rain Promises, both of which have been popular but cover a broader area than the PNW and are in need of updating. Similarly, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast (Noah Siegel and Christian Schwarz) includes a large number of PNW species and is very useful here, but also many that do not extend into most of the PNW. Tus including these three books in quantitative comparisons would have been difficult. Together, the seven PNW guides cover over 1,400 species. Of the 350 species treated in Mushrooms of BC, only about 20 are not included in any of the other six guides, whereas about 70% appear in at least three of the others. Tis is in keeping with the objective of featuring the most common BC mushrooms but also highlights the fact that the other guides are useful north of the border (and, conversely, that the BC book is useful south of the border). Comparing the different books also demonstrates the tradeoffs that are inherent in writing a field guide, seeing as how it is impossible to cover all the species in an area, include workable keys for their identification, describe them in detail, and illustrate them with large clear photographs, ideally with more than one image per species. Mushrooms of BC, similar to Mushrooms of the Northwest, mostly includes the most common species. In contrast to the latter book’s small size, the larger format and higher page count of Mushrooms of BC allows for large photos and more extensive text descriptions. In contrast, Michael Beug’s Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key was designed to cover a much larger number of species (just shy of 900 by my count), including many uncommon ones, in a smaller package (same page size but only 314 pages, rather


50 FUNGI Volume 15:1 Winter 2022


than 500). Over half of the 900 appear only in that book or in just one of the other six. However, the text is in the form of an extended polychotomous key with very brief leads and inserted commentary and the photos range from small to tiny. Tus, it will not function effectively as a stand-alone guide and, indeed, Beug strongly suggests using it in conjunction with the free software program, MycoMatch (formerly MatchMaker), which includes detailed descriptions of several thousand PNW species and photographs of a large number of them. Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest (both the original and forthcoming revised edition) takes an intermediate approach, including close to 500 species in each (nearly 750 in the two editions combined), emphasis on commentary rather than lengthy morphological descriptions, and many smaller-than- ideal-sized photos. Unsurprisingly, it is intermediate in its coverage of not-so- common species — falling short of Beug’s total, but considerably larger than that of Mushrooms of BC. Te single perfect field guide doesn’t exist, so buy them all! A few miscellaneous complaints: there


are several references of the sort, “results from a (insert date) study indicate that . . . ” but no author names and publication details are given such that an interested user could go read them. Occasional bits of misinformation are presented. Tat mushrooms produced by ectomycorrhizal fungi “only grow in forests at least 30 to 40 years old” is not true. I have observed huge fruitings of Tricholoma vaccinum in 15–20 year-old Sitka spruce stands. Te claim that at least some of the morels are mycorrhizal is questionable, if not false. While there is a widespread belief among mushroom hunters that they are mycorrhizal, there is no well- substantiated evidence for it. And the Index is absolutely horrible. Many entries (primarily those for the genera and using the scientific names) are in paragraph form, making it difficult to find what you’re after. Plus, initial feedback from users has indicated that there are many missing entries. Quibbles aside, this is an attractive,


well produced guide that will serve its intended audience well and should be in the library of every PNW mushroom hunter. -Steve Trudell Seattle, Washington


Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North


America Alan Bessette, Dianna Smith, Arleen Bessette 2021, University of Texas Press ISBN 978-1-4773-2772-7 Hardback, 448 pages/309 Color Photos $65 USA


C


ause for celebration! At long last, a companion to Leif Ryvarden


and Robert Gilbertson’s two volume classic North American Polypores. A companion with superb color photographs and extremely up-to- date taxonomy as well. Leif Ryvarden himself wrote me to say that he considered Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North America “a valuable book.” The new polypore volume’s front


matter provides a useful introduction to polypores followed by 32 pages of dichotomous keys. Te main section has 240 species listed alphabetically, so there’s no hopping back and forth to the index, an exercise common in guidebooks. Te species descriptions include macro- and micro-characteristics, chosen habitats, and closing remarks. Te “similar fungi” in the title are a handful of crusts (example: Xylobolus subpileatus) and tooth fungi (example: Radulomyces copelandii). Te back


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60