Please remember that eating wild mushrooms can be risky unless you're certain of the identification. And identification can be tricky. If you have any doubts about whether a mushroom is poisonous, throw it out!
Field Guides
Here's a brief list of some general mushroom field guides useful for the West Coast forager. All of these books can found in your favorite book store, online, or in the library.
- 1986. Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA. 959p.
- 1991. All That the Rain Promises, and More… A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA. 259p.
- 1984. The Mushrooms of Northern California. Spore Prints, Redding CA. 302p.
- 1997. Mushrooms of Colorado and the Southern Rocky Mountains. Westcliffe Publishers, Englewood, CO. 207p.
- 1986. How to Identify Mushrooms To Genus I: Using Only Macroscopic Features. Mad River Press, Eureka, CA. 166p.
- 1998. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY. 926p.
- 1987. The New Savory Wild Mushroom. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Wash. 250p.
- 1979. Mushrooms of North America. E. P. Dutton, New York, NY. 368p.
- 1980. Mushrooms in Color. E. P. Dutton, New York, NY. 286p.
- 2006. North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. Falcon Guide, Guilford, CT. 583p.
- 1980. Mushrooms of Western North America. California Natural History Guides: 42. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 293p.
- 1991. Mushrooms of North America. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA. 319p.
- 2005. Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America. Firefly Books, Buffalo, New York. 319p.
- 1991. Mushrooms of Western Canada. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Canada. 414p.
- A Field Guide to Western Mushrooms. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 280p.
- 1970. The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide Revised and Enlarged. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 264p.
- 1980. The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 316p.
- 1979. How to Know the Gilled Mushrooms. Wm. C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 334p.
- 1981. How to Know the Non-Gilled Mushrooms. Wm. C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 324p.
- 1990. Mushrooms and Truffles of the Southwest. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson AZ. 232p.
- 1979. Mushrooms of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest Discomycetes. University Press of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. 133p.
- 1987. Mushrooms of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest Non-gilled Hymnomycetes. University Press of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. 232p.
Did we miss something?
If you know of a good field guide or website for the western U.S. we didn't include, send us an email.
