Field Guide Introduction

Whether you are new to mushroom hunting or an experienced mushroom hunter, the most important tool for you to have is a mushroom field guide. There are over 20,000 mushroom fruit bodies on planet Earth and that number continues to grow as we discover the similar mushrooms aren’t, in fact, the same mushroom.

Take the classic Chanterelle, for example. The much enjoyed and sought after Chanterelle was first described in 1581 by a Dutch herbalist Matthaeus Lobelius, with the first drawn image by Belgian botanist Carolus Clusius in 1601. That being said, references to what may be the Chanterelle go way, way back in human history and can be found in Europe, Africa and Asia.

It wasn’t until the Scientific Revolution of the 19th century, 1821 to be specific, that the scientific binominal Cantharellus cibarius was finally attributed to this beloved mushroom. Despite extraordinary changes to binomials over the last two hundred years (and significant changes in the last 20 years), this binomial has remained a constant and continues to exist to this day.

It’s no wonder that when Europeans came to North America and found Chanterelles that they recognized them as their European counterparts; they look, smell and taste identical.

Fast forward to the 21st century when DNA sequencing became much more readily available and the amateur mycologists entered the game. On the first few sequences of our chanterelles, we discovered that we had an entirely different species on our hands. Then we discovered other species that looked identical. We then found our Cantharellus cibarius, but with minute differences in the DNA.

We now know that Cantharellus cibarius is a complex (a species with many subspecies). There have been Cantharellus cibarius subspecies named from the North America’s Pacific Northwest to Europe to Japan and Korea. Within North America, we have a number of subspecies of Cantharellus cibarius, but we also have about a dozen species that look like the classic Chanterelle, but are, in fact, different species. Cantharellus californicus, Cantharellus formosus, and as of 2017, Cantharellus enelensis are just a few of our continental species.

Why did I tell you this story?

While it may appear like I started this article with a tangent, there’s a very important reason as to why I explained the history of the Chanterelle. It’s a story that’s replicated across most mushrooms found all around the world. At the turn of the century we thought there were 10,000 mushrooms fruit bodies, we now know there are over 20,000 mushroom fruit bodies, and in a decade, I wouldn’t be surprised if we knew of 30,000. In North America specifically, we have over 11,000 of those mushroom fruit bodies, and that number will continue to climb. The mushrooms remain the same, but our DNA sequencing helps us discover the subtle differences that determine differing species.

A field guide today won’t be as up to date as a field guide printed tomorrow. The information found in the book may not be as accurate as we once thought. The binomial names of the mushrooms may be entirely different. Not just species name, but sometimes the genus will be different, the family will be different, and even the order, class and division may be different! I guess what I’m trying to say is, take it with a grain, no, a pinch of salt. That is to say, no matter what field guide you have in your hands, don’t believe everything you read.

Field Guide Recommendation

Okay! You may have jumped to this section and skipped over the introduction, if so, I strongly recommend you go read it. It’s interesting and contains an important conclusion. Without further ado, here’s what we recommend for optimal foraging experience.

All of North America

We recommend you bring two field guides into the field when hunting for mushrooms. The first book we recommend you take is the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Mushrooms (North America). This is one of, if not the, most comprehensive field guide ever made. It has over 750 mushroom fruit bodies described, each with an accompanying photograph. The process to locate a mushroom within the book is simple and fairly easy to follow, but it can be quite time consuming. If you’re being attacked by mosquitos, it may not be your go-to book, but your back-up field guide.

Another commonly used, continent-wide, field guide is the Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America. This field guide contains 685 mushroom descriptions as well as drawings of each mushroom. There are pros and cons to drawings. On one hand, a drawing can show a mushroom at various stages of it’s lifecycle, in different shades of colour, and at a useful angle. On the other hand, it’s a drawing, not an actual photograph, and it may miss some nuances of a real life photograph. Some people don’t mind that they use drawings, while others take great exception with that notion.

The other book we recommend you bring into the field is a more narrow, regional field guide. While the NAS Field Guide to Mushrooms is a very comprehensive book, it also contains mushrooms that you would not find in your region – whatever region that may be. As such, you’ll be combing through irrelevant mushrooms. Regional field guides tend to not be as comprehensive, but that’s why you have the NAS Field Guide to Mushrooms as your back-up. If you can’t identify a mushroom in your regional book, check the comprehensive book.

Recommended Books by Region

Those in the Pacific northwest might want to consider All that the rain promises and more: A hip pocket guide to Western Mushrooms. While we are not based in the PNW, we have heard some very promising things about this field guide. It has over 200 regional species described, making it much easier to find the mushroom you’re looking to identify.

For those of you that reside in the northeast of North America, we would recommend George Barron’s Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada. The name doesn’t quite do it justice for the regionality, as you’ll find the same mushrooms throughout the northeast of the United States, as well as in Quebec and Manitoba. The book is incredibly easy to flip through, allowing you to identify a mushroom in no time at all. With over 600 regional mushrooms described, each with a photo, it’s a very comprehensive regional field guide.

Last, but certainly not least, if you reside in the US southern states, we recommend you pick up a copy of Mushrooms of the Southeast. Like the PNW field guide, we have not testing this book ourselves, but fellow mycological associations and book reviewers have expressed great content with this field guide. According to the publisher, it contains descriptions of over 1,000 mushrooms – but only 330 species are blessed with a photograph. In our view, a description without a photo is no description at all, but 330 regional species is still quite comprehensive.

An Important Addition To Your Library

All the field guides listed above are fantastic field guides while you’re in the field, but each book has the same downside, they are all most definitely out of date. The recommended field guides for the northeast and the southern states were published in 2016 and 2018, respectively. If you’re thinking that that’s not that old, then please refer back to the introduction of this article. Needless to say, they are out of date.

The field guide for the Pacific northeast dates way back to 1991 and the the NAS Field Guide dates even further back to 1981. In fact, the NAS Field Guide is so out of date that they describe fungi as plants in the book’s introduction. The Peterson Field Guide was thankfully updated in 2021, on the second edition, so of all the books recommended, it’s the most up to date – but still out of date.

All these field guides are still great field guides. The description of the mushrooms stand the test of time, but the names do change, new species are discovered, and research has evolved on the edibility of many of the mushrooms (some species have gone from edible to carcinogenic).

For the most up to date book, you’ll want to get your hands on the National Audubon Society’s Mushrooms of North America, published in 2023. This book is too large to be considered a field guide, and they do not claim to be. It’s a fantastic reference book to keep at home to review up to date information. It’s laid out in a different and unique way that may take a minute to become accustomed if you’re used to the normal field guide layout. However, the pages are glossy, the pictures are beautiful and the information is up to date – thus it makes for a great reference book to have at your disposal.

Concluding Remarks

After years of mushroom hunting, we have learned that going into the field with two field guides is optimum. When we encounter a mushroom we would like to identify, we start with the regional field guide which has less mushrooms, but the mushrooms are more specific to the region. It tends to be pretty quick to find the mushroom.

Since regional field guides are not very comprehensive, you may not find the mushroom in the regional book. In this case, you would move onto your more comprehensive North American field guide. It will take more time to find the mushroom, but you have a higher likelihood of finding it.

If you are mushroom hunting for edible mushrooms, you ought to check two references anyway. Since no field guide has all 11,000 fruit bodies, a field guide may miss lookalikes. Using two field guides to identify a mushroom helps ensure that all your bases are covered.

Once home we’ll be sure to pull out our NAS Mushrooms of North America to read more about the mushrooms. This reference book has the most up to date information on edibility. This should also give us up to date binomials, which we can use to search online for even more information. Using common names is not recommended if the goal is to obtain good quality information.

Bonus: AI-Generated Field Guides

In 2023, the first AI-written field guide for mushrooms hit the Amazon marketplace. Subsequent AI field guides also came to market. Not a single one of them is good. Every single book is full of errors. One day this may be a good approach, but for now, we cannot stress enough that you should not buy one of these AI-written guides.

Maybe you want to choose a field guide that we didn’t recommend. Maybe you’re not from North America. The Mycological Society of Toronto put out this article on How to choose mushroom field guides in the age of AI.

If you’re looking to purchase a field guide, consider buying it off the Think Fungi shop, to help support us.