Recommended Books
With a focus on the Midwest and northeastern North America
Mushroom identification
For information on the identification of fungi, refer to mushroom guides or better yet, attend forays and meetings of a local mushroom club. Always keep in mind that there are many species of fungi that are not found in the popular field guides. This is one reason for utilizing more than one reference book. Also you should compare descriptions and illustrations among books (and websites). Some species can only be accurately determined by means of microscopic characters. There are, however, many common fungi that can be readily identified by careful comparison with both the descriptions and illustrations of a good mushroom book. Don't just look at pictures. The following books are grouped by coverage but all of these are useful for the Upper Midwest.
Edible Mushrooms
- Kuo, Michael. 2005
- Morels. University of Michigan Press.
- Kuo, Michael. 2007.
- 100 Edible Mushrooms. University of Michigan Press.
- McFarland, Joe, and Gregory M. Mueller. 2009.
- Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States: A Field-to-Kitchen Guide. 1st Edition, University of Illinois Press. Watch for expanded Second Edition in 2021.
- Joe's website: Illinois Mushrooms.
Upper Midwest
- Huffman, Donald M., Lois H. Tiffany, George Knaphaus, Rosanne A. Healy. 2010.
- Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the Midcontinental United States. Second Edition, Bur Oak Guide. University Of Iowa Press.
- Huffman, Donald M., and Lois H. Tiffany. 2004.
- Mushrooms in Your Pocket: A Guide to the Mushrooms of Iowa. Bur Oak Guide, University Of Iowa Press. [43 species, laminated fold-out guide]
- Kuo, Michael, and Andrew Methven. 2014.
- Mushrooms of the Midwest. University of Illinois Press.
- See my review of the book on Amazon.
- Michael's website: MushroomExpert.Com
- Marrone, Teresa, and Kathy Yerich. 2014.
- Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest. Adventure Publications, Minnesota.
- Rhodes, Landon H., Britt A. Bunyard, Walter E. Sturgeon, and Sarah D. Ellis Williams. 2013.
- Mushrooms and Macrofungi of Ohio and the Midwestern States. The Ohio State University Extension.
- Related publication: Ohio Wild Mushrooms fact sheet PDF
Eastern North America
- Baroni, Timothy J. 2017.
- Mushrooms of the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada: Timber Press Field Guide. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
- Barron, George. 1999.
- Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- Bessette, Alan E., Arleen R. Bessette, and David W. Fischer. 1997.
- Mushrooms of Northeastern North America. Syracuse University Press, New York.
- Binion, Denise, Steve Stephenson, William Roody, Harold H. Burdsall, Orson K. Miller Jr., Larissa Vasilyeva. 2008.
- Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America. West Virginia University Press
- Roody, William C. 2015.
- Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians. The University Press of Kentucky.
North America
- Arora, David. 1986.
- Mushrooms Demystified. Second Edition. Ten Speed Press; Penguin Random House.
- Beug, Michael, Arleen Bessette, and Alan E. Bessette. 2014.
- Ascomycete Fungi of North America: A Mushroom Reference Guide. University of Texas Press.
- Kuo, Michael, and Andy Methven. 2010.
- 100 Cool Mushrooms. University of Michigan Press.
- Lincoff, Gary H. 1981.
- The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. [continuously reprinted]
- Gary's website: Gary Lincoff
- Miller, Orson K. Jr. and Hope Miller. 2006.
- North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. Falconguide, Globe Pequot Press.
- Phillips, Roger. 2005.
- Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America. Revised and Updated edition. 2010 paperback edition. Firefly Books Ltd.
Cultivation
- Cotter, Tradd. 2014.
- Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation. Chelsea Green Publishing.
- Russell, Stephen. 2014.
- The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms. Storey Publishing.
Coffee table books
- Petersen, Jens H. 2013.
- The Kingdom of Fungi. Princeton University Press.
- Roberts, Peter, and Shelley Evans. 2011.
- The Book of Fungi. University of Chicago Press.
Science of Mycology
- Money, Nicholas P. 2016.
- Fungi: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Deacon, Jim. 2005 (2006).
- Fungal Biology, 4th edition. Wiley-Blackwell.
Plant References
Mushrooms and other fungi are strongly associated with trees, plants, and habitats. Learning to identify trees and recognize plant communities will help in finding and identifying the fungi.
Tree Guides
- Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2006.
- Forest Trees of Illinois. Ninth edition, 2006 update by IL-DNR, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Springfield, IL.
- [I cannot find book online.]
- Peterson, Roger Tory, Janet Wehr, and George Petrides. 1998.
- Eastern Trees [A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada, Including the Midwest (Peterson Field Guides)]. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
- Tekiela, Stan. 2006.
- Trees of Illinois Field Guide. Adventure Publications, Minnesota.
Plant Identification
- Black, M. R. and E. J. Judziewicz. 2009.
- Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region: A Comprehensive Field Guide. 2nd ed. University of Wisconsin Press.
No other manual combines the accessible approach with the species coverage of this book. Accurate and highly usable, it will likely become the wildflower field guide of choice for our region.
— Andrew L. Hipp, the Morton Arboretum, author of Sedges of Wisconsin- Deam, C. C. 1940.
- Flora of Indiana. Indianapolis: Department of Conservation, Division of Forestry.
- Fernald, M. L. 1950.
- Gray's manual of botany: A handbook of the flowering plants and ferns of the central and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. 8th ed. New York: American Book Company.
- Gleason, H. A. and A. Cronquist. 1991.
- Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. 2nd ed. New York: The New York Botanical Garden.
- Mohlenbrock, R. H. 1986.
- Guide to the vascular flora of Illinois. revised and enlarged ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
- Voss, E. G. 1972 - 1996.
- Michigan flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. 3 vols. Bloomfield Hills, MI: Cranbrook Institute of Science.
- Voss, E. G. and A. A. Reznicek. 2012.
- Field Manual of Michigan Flora: A comprehensive guide to Michigan’s wild-growing seed plants. University of Michigan Press. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.345399
- Wilhelm, G. and L. Rericha. 2017.
- Flora of the Chicago Region. A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science.
Medicinal Fungi
- Rogers, Robert. 2011.
- The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America. North Atlantic Books.
Games
- Povis, Brent. 2012.
- Morels: Strategic Foraging and Feasting for Two. Two Lanterns Games. Now has the Forays expansion.
- Entry on Board Game Geek.