Moonglades Mushroom Library

Images are direct links to purchase through Amazon.com – Text provided by Amazon for reference only.

Personal reviews are incuded in my blog.

 

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides) [Paperback]

With more than 700 mushrooms detailed with color photographs and descriptive text, this is the most comprehensive photographic field guide to the mushrooms of North America. The 762 full-color identification photographs show the mushrooms as they appear in natural habitats. Organized visually, the book groups all mushrooms by color and shape to make identification simple and accurate in the field, while the text account for each species includes a detailed physical description, information on edibility, season, habitat, range, look-alikes, alternative names, and facts on edible and poisonous species, uses, and folklore. A supplementary section on cooking and eating wild mushrooms, and illustrations identifying the parts of a mushroom, round out this essential guide.

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Mushrooms Demystified [Paperback]

Simply the best and most complete mushroom field guide and reference book, MUSHROOMS DEMYSTIFIED includes descriptions and keys to more than 2,000 species of mushrooms, with more than 950 photographs. Mushroom authority David Arora provides a beginner’s checklist of the 70 most distinctive and common mushrooms, plus detailed chapters on terminology, classification, habitats, mushroom cookery, mushroom toxins, and the meanings of scientific mushroom names. Beginning and experienced mushroom hunters everywhere will find MUSHROOMS DEMYSTIFIED a delightful, informative, and indispensable companion.

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Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide [Paperback]

Unusual shapes and colors make many mushrooms alluring to the eye, while the exotic flavors and textures of edible mushrooms are a gourmet delicacy for the palate. Yet many people never venture beyond the supermarket offerings, fearing that all other mushrooms are poisonous.

With amateur mushroom hunters especially in mind, David Fischer and Alan Bessette have prepared Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America. This field guide presents more than 100 species of the most delicious mushrooms, along with detailed information on how to find, gather, store, and prepare them for the table. More than 70 savory recipes, ranging from soups and salads to casseroles, canapes, quiches, and even a dessert, are included.

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A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guides) [Paperback]

This field guide is nearly twenty years old, but there are so few field guides to fungi that it still remains a standard reference. Like all Peterson field guides, it is handy and compact and can easily be taken into the field and pored over with the mushrooms in their wild habitat. The text is detailed and accurate and a “similar species” section is very useful. However, this guide uses painted plates whereas amateurs generally find it easier to identify fungi by photographs. I personally find photographs more accurate, but enjoy paintings in their own right. In this case the paintings are pleasing and quite faithful.

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Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America [Paperback]

For amateur collectors or professional mycologists working in the field, this guidebook is quite simply the best North American mushroom reference ever published. Each of the 1,000 specimens is shown in full color on a neutral background to eliminate distractions, and specimens are arranged to show the cap, stem, gills, spines and a cross section, usually in various stages of growth.

Roger Phillips identifies all regional varieties of Basidiomycetes, which include chanterelles, puffballs and fungi, and Ascomycetes, which include morels and cup fungi. Detailed descriptive information on each mushroom variety includes:

• Dimensions of cap, gills and stem
• Color and texture of flesh
• Odor and taste
• Habitat and growing season
• Distribution and appearance of spores
• Edibility and poison warnings

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Collins Fungi Guide: The Most Complete Field Guide to the Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain & Europe (Collins Guide) [Hardcover]

The fourth title in the bestselling Collins Guide series, this book covers every macro species of mushroom and toadstool found in Europe—from the North Cape to the heel of Italy. Every species is illustrated in color directly opposite the species description, with visuals of young and mature fruiting bodies where necessary. Nearly 2,400 species are depicted along with detailed notes on how to correctly identify them, including details of similar, confusing species to further ensure correct identification. Penned by one of Europe’s leading mycologists and illustrated by one of the world’s leading natural history illustrators, this is the ultimate fungi guide for both amateur and experienced mycologists alike.

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The Observer’s Book of Common Fungi [Import] [Hardcover]

Observer’s Pocket Series Number Nineteen

Observer’s Pocket Series—A series of pocket-sized books, published by Frederick Warne & Co covering a variety of topics including hobbies, art, history and wildlife and aimed originally at children. The series contains 98 books. The first book was originally published in 1937 and the last book was originally published in 2003.

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Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Mushrooms (Nature Guide Series) [Paperback]

Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Mushrooms is indispensable to anyone fascinated by mushrooms and other fungi. Lavishly illustrated, it contains detailed information about 420 types of mushrooms and other fungi found in the United States and Europe. The comprehensive introduction provides general information on the structure, reproduction, life cycles, classification, and distribution of the various species and describes the individual parts of the fungus as well. The entries describe the appearance, habitat, and geographic distribution of each species of fungi. The easy-to-use visual key provides each entry with immediately recognizable symbols that indicate spore color, ecological environment, and whether the species is edible or poisonous. A glossary and analytical index, plus an Index to Genera for locating particular subjects, help make this the most beautiful, valuable, and authoritative book in the field.

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How to Identify Mushrooms to Genus II: Field Identification of Genera [Paperback]

While the information in this book is comprehensive, the terminology may be difficult for the non-expert to follow, and there is no glossary provided.

For those familliar with mushroom terminology that want a very thin (30 page) reference guide for the field, it is thorough and comprehensive. It recomneded for the advanced mycophile.

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Color Treasury Of Mushrooms & Toadstools – How To Find Them And Identify Them [Hardcover]

This full-color, large format hardback features 102 mushrooms and toadstools. It is very useful guide for the beginner, as similar types are distinguished from each other with photos and description.

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The Ultimate Mushroom Book: The Complete Guide to Identifying, Picking and Using Mushrooms-A Photographic A-Z of Types and 100 Original Recipes [Hardcover]

Full of great photos, including full color, as well as a real mushroom cut in half. Very helpful with listing each mushroom and identifying whether good or bad. Full of lots of very good information, and even includes recipes(for those bravehearted who went gathering to eat).

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A Country Harvest

240 pages, includes bibliography. Arranged alphabetically by the Latin names of the plants, with accompanying illustrations that show the plants of the best time for picking and having the edible parts illustrated. The recipes indicate metric, American and English equivalent quantities. There is a calendar which tells you which plants to look forward each season of the year on the end pages. Colour illustrated dustjacket.

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The following titles though out of print are still available from select sellers of used books. At the time of library compilation, no photo covers were available.

Complete Book Of Mushrooms – Augusto Rinaldi, Vassili Tyndalo (Italian-1972, English-1974)

Exotic Mushrooms – text by Henri Romangesi (1961, 1970, 1971)

Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain and Europe (Roger Phillips, 1981)

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Mushroom Science

Introduction to the History of Mycology [Paperback]

In this volume, first published in 1976, Dr Ainsworth gives a straightforward account of the main views held about fungi for the past three millennia and the development of the study of fungi as a branch of science for the last 250 years. The existing literature is widely scattered and much of it suffers from difficulty of access. In this volume there is documented an outline of the development of the main areas of mycology, with emphasis on the solution of the major problems that have confronted students of fungi and novel discoveries which have given new insights. A number of important themes form the basis of the account, each one being traced from early times to the twentieth century. The themes are arranged in the chronology of their appearance in mycological studies. Most chapters are thus self-contained. Whilst an elementary knowledge of mycology is assumed, technicalities have been kept to a minimum so that not only mycologists but other biologists and historians of science can understand the history of the development of knowledge of an important group of organisms.

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Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants 2nd Edition( Paperback ) by Stewart, Wilson N.; Rothwell, Gar W. published by Cambridge University Press [Paperback]

Originally published in 1993, this second edition of a successful textbook describes and explains in a refreshingly clear way the origin and evolution of plants as revealed by the fossil record and summarises paleobotanical information relevant to our understanding of the relationships between the major plant groups, extant and extinct. As in the first edition, the text is profusely illustrated with line illustrations and half-tones. For those students with little knowledge of plant structure and morphology there is a brief resumé of those features of extant plants that will be needed to gain a better understanding of the fossil record. Summarising charts are also used to help students visualise the interpretative material.

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Alexopoulos, Constantine J.; Mims, Charles W.; Blackwell, M.’s Introductory Mycology 4th (fourth) edition by Alexopoulos, Constantine J.; Mims, Charles W.; Blackwell, M. published by Wiley [Hardcover] (1996) [Hardcover]

Revised and updated in accordance with modern taxonomic proposals, this edition offers a well-documented, logical and clear explanation of the structure and classification of fungi along with an introduction to physiological, biochemical, genetic and ecological data. The taxonomic approach provides a framework with predictive value. Therefore, the discussions of the numerous activities of fungi that directly or indirectly impact other living things, including humans, are discussed in the context of their close relatives. Contains scores of illustrations, life cycle drawings, tables and new photographs.

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Mushrooms: Cultivation, Nutritional Value, Medicinal Effect, and Environmental Impact [Hardcover]

Since the publication of the first edition, important developments have emerged in modern mushroom biology and world mushroom production and products. The relationship of mushrooms with human welfare and the environment, medicinal properties of mushrooms, and the global marketing value of mushrooms and their products have all garnered great attention, identifying the need for an updated, authoritative reference.

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The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs: History, Pharmacology, and Cultural Context (American Chemical Society Publication) [Paperback]

This fascinating book presents a scientifically objective, and thoroughly documented exposition of the pharmacological and psychological effects of nearly every known substance that affects human consciousness, from alcohol to Zopiclone. It also features first-hand accounts and descriptions of the social, cultural, and religious milieus in which many psychotropic plants are used, and discusses historical allusions to many literary and scientific figures who used or wrote of mind-altering drugs, including Freud, Dickens, Yeats, and Huxley. Intended for a wide audience of general readers seeking unbiased information, the book gives an accessible explanation of drug-receptor interaction and organic chemical structures, as well as descriptions of the discovery, isolation, and syntheses of the chemical substances responsible for drug activity. Written by an experienced chemist, the book nevertheless keeps technical information to a minimum.

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Medicinal Mushrooms (Herbs and Health Series) [Paperback]

This modern handbook for exploring and understanding the rich traditions of healing fungi in Eastern and Western cultures is the most complete work on the cultural, health-promoting and medicinal uses of mushrooms ever published!. Author Christopher Hobbs thoroughly documnents and details the nutritional and health benefits of over 100 species of edible fungi.

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A Modern Herbal in Two Volumes [Paperback]

The fullest, most exact, most useful compilation of herbal material. Gigantic alphabetical encyclopedia, from aconite to zedoary, gives botanical information, medical properties, folklore, economic uses, much else. Indispensable to serious reader. “There is not one page of this enchanting book which does not contain something to interest.”

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A Textbook of Mycology – Ernst Athern Bessey – (1935)

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Fungi: Delight of Curiosity – Harold M. Brodie (1907)

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Mushroom Spirit

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Plant Intoxicants: A Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants [Paperback]

This pioneering study of psychoactive plants and their role in society, initially published in 1855, is one of the first books to examine the cultivation, preparation, and consumption of the world’s major stimulants and inebriants. It presents a fascinating panorama of the world-wide use of psychoactive plants in the nineteenth century.

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The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the ancient Near East [Paperback]

Where did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This book challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion.The ancient fertility cult at the heart of Christianity

The living power of cultic rites and symbols

The sacred mushroom as the emblem and embodiment of divinity

The secret meaning of biblical myths

The language of religion that links us to our ancestors

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross sets out John Allegro’s quest through a family tree of languages to find the truth about where Christianity came from.

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Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution [Paperback]

For the first time in trade paperback, the critically acclaimed counterculture manifesto by the wildly popular McKenna. “Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs and hallucinogens.”–The Washington Post. Photos and illustrations.

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Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, (Ethno-Mycological Studies) [Paperback]

This is the now classic attempt to identify the mysterious god / plant / substance of the Sanskrit Vedas as the fly agaric mushroom, a fungus known to have mood-altering hallucinogenic properties when properly prepared and consumed. Wasson argues that the cryptic descriptions of the Soma can be explained by the shape and colors of the mushroom, while its effects explain its association with divine powers, and its use in the sacrificial rituals to contact the gods. The conclusion has been widely accepted, and bitterly disputed, with a number of opponents returning, armed with new information, to earlier proposals.

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Conspectus of World Ethnomycology: Fungi in Ceremonies, Crafts, Diets, Medicines,and Myths [Paperback]

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Fungi in the Ancient World [Paperback]

This well documented book presents reproductions and descriptions of fungal motifs in ancient art, myth, and folklore that enable direct examination of evidence by any reader, professional or lay. Interdisciplinary in scope, this detailed and illustrated book includes a historical perspective on co-evolution of fungi with early agriculture that provides documented summaries of contemporary research in this area, from archaeology to molecular-genetics. It also delivers a historical perspective on the impact of fungi on human and animal health in early times, with examples of current methods used to assess historical impacts of mycotoxins, allergens, and pathogens. Translations and summaries from relevant ancient Greek, Roman, Sumerian and other texts are included, demonstrating how ancients themselves observed and recorded significant impacts of fungi.

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Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History [Hardcover]

From Native Americans’ use of tobacco for solemnizing oaths to the spread of New Age religious beliefs in Haight-Ashbury coffeehouses, drugs have been intimately associated with American spirituality. Stairways to Heaven illustrates how such substances as peyote, jimson weed, hallucinogenic mushrooms, LSD, marijuana, wine, and coffee have stimulated ecstatic revelations of spiritual truth and strengthened the social bonds that sustain communities of faith. The book deftly moves from historical examples to an engaging consideration of the legal, ethical, and spiritual controversies that surround drug use in contemporary America. Clearly written and accessible, Stairways to Heaven is a significant scholarly review of the relationship between religion and drugs in America.

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Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities [Hardcover]

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother).

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Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers [Paperback]

Three scientific titans join forces to completely revise the classic text on the ritual uses of psychoactive plants. They provide a fascinating testimony of these “plants of the gods,” tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with 400 rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactive flora.

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Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma [Paperback]

In Ploughing the Clouds, Peter Lamborn Wilson suggests that the ancient Celts of Ireland may have possessed a “Soma” ceremony similar to one described in the Rig Veda, one of the oldest scriptures in the world. Written in India in 1500 BC, the Rig Veda praises a holy plant called Soma or “magic mushroom” that grants the drinker enlightenment and ecstasy. By comparing Celtic myth and folklore with the Rig Veda, he uncovers an Irish branch of the great Indo-European tradition of psychedelic (or “entheogenic”) shamanism, and even reconstructs some of its secret rituals. He uses this comparative material to illuminate the deep meaning of the Soma-function in all cultures: the entheogenic origin of “poetic frenzy,” the link between intoxication and inspiration.

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Mushrooms and Mankind: The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion [Paperback]

For thousands of years, humanity has been involved in a symbiotic relationship with plants. Not only have plants supplied mankind with a never-ending food source, but have also served us in another way. This book uncovers the natural link between man, consciousness, and God. This discovery may at first seem abstract, wishful thinking, or even impossible; yet as evidence presented on these pages unfolds, one may find that its understanding does not require as much of a leap of faith as first thought. The author believes this to be the most significant discovery in the entire field of religious knowledge ever to happen in the history of mankind. Should people explore this knowledge, it may allow many to put aside their differences, and join in the understanding that each and every one of us may now experience that which has been, until this time, hidden away in the recesses of our spiritual history. According to the author, we may at last be able to open ourselves to an entirely new and valuable consciousness.

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Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses of Fungi Among the Ahnishinaabeg [Hardcover]

For those interested in Native American history, and or legends this is a great book to read. For those interested in plants or mushrooms and some Native American uses this book provides a wealth of information.

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How the Indians used Wild Plants for Food, Medicine, and Crafts – Francis Densmore (1974)

Fungi: Folklore, Fiction and Fact Paperback – Import, November 1, 1982

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Mushroom Miscellaneous

Faeries: Deluxe Collector’s Edition [Hardcover]

A quarter of a century after its initial publication, and with more than a million copies in print worldwide, Brian Froud and Alan Lee’s Faeries is a certified fantasy classic. Now, Froud and Lee return to their most enduring and beloved work in this deluxe anniversary edition. This ultimate collector’s book features eight new pieces of art by Froud and Lee with the original pencil drawings and watercolors.

More than just a reissue, this deluxe revised and updated edition contains essays from both Froud and Lee on the continuing influence of Faeries. There is also a foreword by bestselling author Jane Yolen.

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Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide [Hardcover]

For centuries hallucinogenic mushrooms have participated in a sublime relationship with humankind, thanks to their psychoactive chemicals that shift and modify the human mind. Arik Roper’s exquisite painted portraits of magic mushrooms illustrate more than 90 of the known hallucinogenic species from around the world. He captures their powerful auras, adding to a tradition of Mushroom art that stretches back more than 400 years.

Popular culture critics Erik Davis and Daniel Pinchbeck provide background and testimony in elegant essays, and mushroom expert Gary Lincoff contributes notes. This beautifully designed and profusely illustrated mushroom bible will appeal to nature lovers, mushroom hunters, and enthusiasts of all things psychedelic.

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How to See Fairies [Hardcover]

Charles van Sandwyk is an author and illustrator who lives part of the year in the Fiji Islands, where the tropical setting furnishes inspiration for his unique art. He has exhibited his work in galleries around the world.

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The Big Golden Book of Elves and Fairies [Hardcover]

This whimsical and charming collection of stories and poems was first published in 1951. Now a new generation of fairy fans can search for lost merbabies, bargain with pixies, and frolic under the moon with Jane Werner’s fantastic selection of “wee folk” tales, masterfully illustrated by Garth Williams.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass [Mass Market Paperback]

The young Alice follows a hasty hare underground-to come face-to-face with some of the strangest adventures in all of literature. In this arresting parody of the fears, anxieties, and complexities of growing up, readers enter the world of make-believe, where the impossible becomes possible and the heights of adventure are unlimited.

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Fantasy: The Golden Age of Fantastic Illustration [Paperback]

This book features work by such artists as: Aubrey Beardsley, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Arthur Rackham and Kay Nielsen.

In Particular people interested in the Pre-Raphaelite movement would enjoy this book.

Quite a number of the illustrations are in colour.
The “Notes on Illustrators” at the back of the book gives a list of all the (known) books each artist has ever illustrated.

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Want to know more?

Northern Ireland Fungus Group

Bog of Allen

Mushroomland

Bill O’Dea

Hips and Haws

Slovenia Eat

 

 

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Images are direct links to purchase through Amazon.com – Text provided by Amazon for reference only.