Field Guide to Mushrooms of Western North America:
A Book Review
Field Guide to Mushrooms of Western North America
R. Michael Davis, Robert Sommer, John A. Menge
Hardcover: 472 pages
University of California Press, Berkeley, 2012
ISBN: 978-0520271081
An updated field guide to mushrooms of western North America was long overdue. The last volume of Mushrooms of Western North America, by Robert and Dorothy Orr, was published by UC Press in 1979. With the publication of this fine book by UC Davis Professor and Plant pathologist Mike Davis, UC Riverside Professor Emeritus and Plant Pathologist John A. Menge and UC Davis Professor Emeritus Robert Sommer, we finally have one in hand. Each of these authors brought their particular passions and expertise in the fungal world to this cooperative compilation of western fungi. Mike Davis has gone deep into the study of western Russula species, and that section shines with detail. John Menge, who first introduced Davis to fungi, specializes in the fungi of southern California, and always dreamed of writing a field guide. Bob Sommer, a passionate amateur mycologist, has spent decades capturing the beauty and details of fungi in watercolor paintings, as well as writing extensively about mushrooms in various venues. Together, they have produced a book that highlights western fungi: the most interesting, the most beautiful and those with the greatest importance to humankind, whether as food or poison.
The book was designed by the authors to be a beginner’s guide, and as such covers many of the basics, from trail manners to collection techniques to developing your “mushroom eyes.” There is information on mushroom toxins, mushroom cultivation and mushroom crafts. Full species descriptions (limited by the publisher to only 200 words) are accompanied by color photos, and species similar to the primary one depicted are also described. Several genera included here, including Ramaria, Amanita and Russula, were all DNA analyzed for accuracy of identification. In other words, you know that particular photo is indeed that particular species. However, variability happens, and many times a mushroom in hand can be quite ambiguous as to species. Until we are all issued Tricorders with our field guides, DNA as an identification confirmation is merely a dream for most.
This volume is also the first western guide to touch on some of the genetic underpinnings of the many taxonomic name changes that have been occurring in mycology, and shows through simple explanations and diagrams how mushrooms are now organized through phylogeny (i.e., who’s your Daddy?) rather than merely similar morphology. This book is also the first to use some of the new mushroom names (for some of the same old mushrooms) published over the last twenty years, as well as provides a useful checklist of mushroom synonyms and misapplied names. The authors used common names for mushrooms only if it already was in common usage. This a refreshing change from many other field guides where publishers insist upon a made-up-on-the-fly, non-latin name for all fungi.
Edibility designations were generally deemphasized, other than the truly choice edibles and the unambiguously poisonous. However, since so many new mushroomers are looking specifically for edibility information, they did include a short section of twenty one “easy edibles” and as is usually the case, the edibility of each mushroom depicted was commented upon.
But edibility comments are subject to author bias: their personal favorite mushrooms may not be yours. The authors told me that they chose to be conservative in their edibility recommendations so as to circumvent experimentation. Still, some of the edibility advice is confusing or overly broad in its condemnation.
For instance, all Cortinarius species are dismissed as edibles because there are a few deadly poisonous ones, and many Cortinarius species can be difficult to identify. However, one of the best western edible mushrooms is Cortinarius caperatus, the former Rozites caperata, and it is easily identified by several features, including its membranous rather than fibrillose veil. This deliciously edible Cortinarius, alas, was left out of this guide. In general however, the Cortinarius section was a cut above, thanks in no small part to the assistance of Dimitar Bojantchev, an amateur mycologist in California and a passionate proponent of western Cortinarius taxonomy.
I was quite disappointed in the Amanita treatments, however. Several of the amanita photos depicted ambiguous or incomplete fruit bodies, an unhelpful trait for beginners who are just developing their search images. A photo of the deadly poisonous Amanita ocreata did not show the bulb, a critical identification feature, and Amanita pachycholea was shown with a constricted volva, inviting confusion with the very similar Amanita constricta. Worse yet, the exclusively eastern species Amanita jacksonii was claimed to be an example of our western Caesars mushroom. We do indeed have southwestern Caesars, but they look nothing like A. jacksonii, are not that species and already have a provisional name (Amanita cochiseana, nom. prov., Tulloss).
Edibility treatments for the amanitas were all over the map. The authors gave a nod to the fact that some western amanitas are commonly eaten (A. velosa and A. calyptroderma, primarily) but then expressed undue caution over the equally edible if not incredible, and readily identifiable gray and brown-capped grisettes (A. constricta, A. vaginata and A. pachycholea). There was also an odd mistake about Amanita franchetii in the text. Amanita franchetii, a member of Amanita section Validae, along with other blushing amanitas like Amanita novinupta, was here claimed to be “a close relative of A. muscaria and A. pantherina,” both of which are members of Amanita section Amanita. The authors then recommended that franchetii should not be eaten since it might contain the same toxins found in muscaria and pantherina. It doesn’t. In fact, several members of section Validae, including A. franchetii and A. novinupta here in Califonia, have been safely eaten as edibles here in North America after thorough cooking. Neither are close relatives to either muscaria or pantherina.
Acknowledging the current debate raging over the safe edibility of the normally toxic Amanita muscaria, these authors chose to call the mushroom toxic and hallucinogenic but with water soluble toxins. They then went out of their way to recommend that folks not eat it, attempting to walk that fine line between warning and enlightening.
These small points aside, there is plenty to like about this book. I loved the Russula and Ramaria sections: photos were illustrative and descriptions thorough. The fact that Mike Davis wrote this book, someone who loves and spends much time attempting to understand the genus Russula, made that section special. Ramaria can be another tough group to identify to species, but with the fine photos and wealth of details provided in this book, I felt as though I had another chance at successful coral mushroom identifications. Wish me luck!
The wax caps were well covered, with both mundane species like Hygrocybe psittacina and rarely seen ones like the lime green H. virescens. They even gave a nod to some of the more interesting snow melt fungi, like Hygrophorus goetzii. Along with secotioid mushrooms (gilled or pored mushrooms that are evolving into an underground, truffle-like existence, snowmelt fungi are a uniquely western mountain phenomenon, and several interesting and commonly encountered species were depicted in this book.
Despite the jacket blurb to the contrary, in fact there were very few uniquely southern California species shown. This was not the fault of the authors, however, but a publisher who cut random species so as to make the book shorter. A few of the more interesting, dry adapted, desert/Central Valley mushrooms were shown, like Tulostomas and Agaricus deserticola. The species chosen for inclusion in this book were also taken primarily from California, not from the western states as a whole. One of the few exceptions was the lovely Floccularia luteovirens, a denizen of both Colorado and Idaho, but not California. Of course, species found in California can also occur in other western states, like the newly named Amanita vernicoccora, the “Spring Coccora,” found in the Sierra, and along the central to northern California coast and up into the Pacific Northwest.
Mushrooms of Western North America may not cover every western mushroom , but this readily portable volume certainly has many of the commonly encountered fungal species, from gilled to pored fleshy fungi, polypores to ascos, and all with good descriptions and good photos. Photos were contributed by a number of respected photographers in addition to the authors, including Ron Wolf, Dimitar Bojantchev, Taylor Lockwood and Neil Hardwick. Although probably of little matter to beginning mushroomers, little microscopical detail was provided. Spores were mostly described in generalities, not by exact measurements. There are simple keys to most of the mushrooms depicted, but of course, with only 300 species described here, you may not find the mushroom that you are looking to identify!
Still, one must start somewhere. A beginning mushroomer would be well served with this field guide at their side, and in fact, even we more experienced mushroomers can find a lot to like and learn from, especially in sections that depict some of the more difficult to ID genera, Like the Russulas and Ramaria and Cortinarius.
When I interviewed Bob Sommers and Mike Davis for this review, they both emphasized how much fun it was to do this book. I think that their fun translates into both fun and education for the rest of us. If you are a California mushroomer, or if you want to see how the mushroom-loving left coast spends its winters, you might just want to put this book on your Christmas wish list.
.Debbie Viess © 2012
