Need to know? Mushroom Hunting

habitats, myths, preservation, cultivation and more. • Edibles found in open habitats - each species (including both edible and poisonous species) are presented on two pages with usually good photographs plus look-alikes and a section on how to cook the edibles. • Woodland edibles - a good selection of difficult-to-confuse species has been chosen and well described with close-ups of gills, tubes etc plus spore deposits to aid identification. • Poisonous species - a small selection of our most poisonous or deadly species are illustrated.

Need to know?

Mushroom Hunting How to safely identify edible wild mushrooms Patrick Harding 192 pp in full colour. Publ. by Collins (2006). £9.99 ISBN-13: 978-0-00-721507-X ollins (part of the HarperCollins group) have to be the most prolific of publishers when it comes to books on fungi, with scarcely a year going by without one or more new titles appearing. Producing a book aimed squarely at eating fungi is always a risky venture since the facts have to be 100% correct and you have to make the identification as foolproof as possible. This book succeeds admirably in both those areas. The book is divided into five main sections, each colour-coded on the page edges: • Getting started - a very nicely laid out section introducing the reader to how to collect, photograph and examine fungi, as well as where to go for further information. • About fungi - a comprehensive and well illustrated section on fungal natural history,

C

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself liking this book a lot. The layout is clear and friendly and the important notes and asides which appear on each page in separate coloured boxes serve to constantly remind readers of any salient points or similar looking species. The nomenclature is for the most part up to date and will at least be familiar to most readers who may have used other mushroom guides. I am however worried about the inclusion of Lacrymaria velutina (= L. lacrymabunda, Weeping Widow) as a good edible species since there is an almost identical look-alike twin - L. glareosa - which has been implicated in poisonings in Scotland and L. velutina itself has been reported by some to cause upsets (Watling, 1987). This species should have been omitted. The section on poisonous species could have been expanded. It is slightly confusing since many other toxic species are mentioned or illustrated in other parts of the book which might more usefully have been gathered together at the end, even at the risk of repetition. But on the whole the author has produced an attractive and well thought-out guide with much useful information. Reference Watling, R. (1987). British Fungus Flora part 5:73-74. 29