Reddit reviews National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

It's nothing crazy. Went for the Telluride Mushroom Festival in 2011. Had an amazing time, learned a lot, and met just about every big name in the field of mycology, including Paul Stamets, who is one of my science heroes. I also got to mushroom hunt with Gary Lincoff who literally wrote the book on mushroom identification.

Anyways, I have like 4 days of this amazing, fantastic time, meet all these amazing, fantastic people. The time comes to go home after vacation, and I knew that I wasn't going back to my shitty Wal-Mart job. Something had to change. So I called my boss, told him "I'm not going to be coming back" and enrolled in college. About to start my 4th year of school at the University of New Mexico, and yeah, it's been a bumpy ride, but I'm completely happy with the path I took. Sometimes I don't feel that way, but then I think on what life was before, and how much more I value it now, and I'm glad I did it.

Ever since, I've just had the itch to live in Colorado. It's beautiful, the people are super, duper friendly (I do a lot of hiking up in Durango and the surrounding mountains) and the beer is second to none. It's the kind of place I fantasized about living in for the last 10 years.

My favorite parts of the post;
"Always wear gloves  – It’s surprisingly easy to absorb toxins through fingers" and " the data was drawn from The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms"

A list of pictures is not enough. You need a comprehensive resource that will also tell you which ones have no inedible lookalikes and how the inedible lookalikes differ if they do exist.

The closest thing to what you are looking for is probably this. And, even then, go out with an experienced mushroom hunter the first few hundred times.

My favorites are:

Roger Phillips Mushrooms and Other Fungi....
https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-Other-Fungi-North-America/dp/155407651X

David Arora Mushrooms Demystified
https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-Demystified-David-Arora/dp/0898151694

Audubon Society Field Guide:
https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922

DK Mushroom Book:
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/p/mushrooms-dk/1127751094/2689838557184

This last one is a big beautiful hardcover book with a lot of different mushrooms from around the world and some excellent pictures:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Fungi-Life-Size-Hundred-Species/dp/0226721175

Other than that it would depend on your region because I have some guides I love that focus on my region.

The two you've listed are my personal favorites. I also make use of National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, 100 Edible Mushrooms, North American Mushrooms: A Field guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (not my favorite, but a useful cross reference at times), and Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America (this one has fantastic photos. While it is never recommended to ID by appearance alone, the cross cuts and underside photos in this book can be very useful). If you live in the southern east coast then I'd recommend Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States if you can find it affordably (as far as I know it is out of print and even used coppies are pretty expensive, but it is a fantastic book for southeastern mushrooms).

As far as websites I am a pretty frequent visitor of MushroomExpert.com. It offers some good keys and there are a lot of mushrooms listed.

https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922

Look into local chapters of the mycological society or mushroom hunting groups/clubs in your area. This site lists a few options. Looks like the one in Albion may be near-ish to you.

I've also found many of the links in the sidebar helpful, especially mushroom observer and the mushroom hunting and identification forum on The Shroomery. The Shroomery's ID forum is where I go to confirm my suspected ID's after keying out specimens on my own.

I use Mushrooms Demystified, by David Arora, as a my post collection ID book. It's both huge and dated (i think it's latest edition is from the early or mid 80's) so it's functionality as a field guide or the final word in ID is lacking. Even so, it is good to learn to work through dichotomous keys like the ones that it employs and it usually gets you headed in the right direction. Other guides like Rogers Mushrooms, All the Rain Promises and More, and The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms are good resources, too (I'm sure other folks can add to this list, I'm just dropping the names that first come to mind).

As much as I clash with some of his professional/ethical decisions, Paul Stamets has contributed a ton to the accessibility of Mycology to the masses. Check out Mycelium Running and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms as introductions to the Fifth Kingdom.

I'm also really enjoying Tradd Cotter's new book, Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Fungi for the People and The Radical Mycology Collective have also been hugely influential in my personal growth as an amateur mycologist. If you ever get a chance to attend any of their events, I would recommend doing it.

Best of luck and enjoy your journey!

I suggest you start with something local to your region. If you can't find that, start with Audubon.

My opinion is that you are better off with at least two books for two reasons. First, you get more pictures of the same species, because no matter how lucky you get, mushrooms in the field look just a little different than mushrooms in the book. And second, different books have different keys, meaning they start from different ID characters. Audubon starts with spore color (for the most part) whereas All That the Rain Promises starts with visual/physical characters and uses spore color as confirmation (and/or differentiation).

More than anything, take your time. Learn to recognize a species or two (or however many) on sight, no matter the age or condition. This will ensure you don't confuse it for a lookalike, but it also helps your overall ID skills (IMO).

Also, as /u/thefrisker said, certain mushrooms species always and only grow with certain tree species (mycorrhizal) so your tree knowledge will help as well.

Mushrooms Demystified is a great reference but when i'm out in the woods I like something a little less brick-like. NAS Field Guide is my constant companion when I venture off into the trees.

This is the one I use. It’s pretty complete and not too expensive.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394519922/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kWQQBbB92MYGP

I'm in Eastern PA, and went to PSU Upark. I prefer the Audubon society guides, they tend to have everything that's not rare that I encounter. It worked for me up in State College and is still great here in Berks county. https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541772740&sr=8-1&keywords=audobon+guide+mushrooms Also it's not heavy and it's always in my backpack.

These could be false morels, though I hope they aren't and you can eat a yummy meal. I would check them out on multiple sites and make a shroomery account. Also, if you plan to hunt often, Mushrooms Demystified and the Audubon Society's Mushroom Field Guide are both very necessary guides.

Buy an Audobon myco id book and look for deadly/noxious lookalikes in your area. Do a spore print if it's not too dry yet. Check the book for other info. Don't (don't) ask the internet if you should eat something. It's very dangerous!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394519922/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_udIDDbVAT1XYR

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Kuo/e/B001ILI9G2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603582142/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/The-Mushroom-Cultivator-Practical-Mushrooms/dp/0961079800/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V56Q93CSRKQYV2W1C0B http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V56Q93CSRKQYV2W1C0B http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472030361/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472031260/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394519922/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580085792/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

National Audubon Society Field Guide

This book is your bible. It's what I used for my mycology course.

I have this one

And

[This one] (http://www.amazon.com/All-That-Rain-Promises-More/dp/0898153883/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418146439&sr=1-1&keywords=all+that+the+rain+promises)

And they are working pretty good to get me started.

This is a valuable book to own:

https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1D1IB9DI2107O&keywords=mushroom+identification+field+guide&qid=1559310910&s=gateway&sprefix=mushroom+ident%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

If you can get your hand on an Audubon's Guide, they're sort of the gold standard for identifying and harvesting in the PNW.
Here's a link to their mushroom guide

I like this book:

http://www.amazon.com/North-American-Mushrooms-Inedible-Falconguide/dp/0762731095/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1409688221&sr=8-6&keywords=mushrooms+of+north+america

I don't like this book:

http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409688242&sr=8-1&keywords=audubon+mushrooms

I did this on Friday:

http://www.reddit.com/r/mycology/comments/2f9lbx/prelabor_day_haul_10_variety_30_lbs/

I've used this one in the field

National Audubon American Mushrooms