The Mushroom Manual-Tops! Complete for College Class: Simple for You and Me

Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners; some inconsistency
Review: This book is designed primarily for those who are looking to collect mushrooms for eating purposes. It provides a basic introduction to terminology, but little other scientific information. As a brief guide it is very good; it focuses on common mushrooms found in the midwest. The keys are fairly cursory because of the necessary length constraint, but the discussions of major groups of mushrooms are interesting and fairly informative. There is some minor inconsistency; although the introduction stresses safety ("rule #1; never eat it unless you're 100% sure what it is") later mushroom descriptions make such broad statements as "a lactarius with red milk is generally safe." Applying a little caution, and in conjunction with a more extensive guide, this can be a good resource.