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Review
Praise for the Collins Complete series:
'Wonderfully descriptive photographs'
BBC Wildlife
‘Whether you are a keen amateur or someone with a passing interest, this book will satisfy your needs.’
The Sea
'Packs in lots of well-chosen detail in compact form'
British Wildlife Magazine
Product Description
Collins Complete Guide to British Muchrooms and Toadstools allows everyone to identify mushrooms found in Britain and Ireland. The book is illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout, featuring the species you are most likely to see.
By only covering Britain and Ireland, fewer species are included than in many broader European guides, making it quicker and easier for the reader to accurately identify what they have found.
Extensive details on size, shape and colour are given and over 1,500 photographs help you identify each species.
This is the essential photographic guide to the mushrooms and toadstools of Britain and Ireland.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Prior to the recent publication of this book, there were two 'complete' [no book can be, but they make a stab in that direction] guides to the fungi of Britain. These are "The Encyclopedia of Fungi of Britain and Europe" by Michael Jordan, and "Mushrooms" by Roger Phillips. Both books are excellent large-format paperbacks that are ideal for identification purposes except in one respect - they are fairly large and heavy.
The purpose of this book in the face of two such excellent guides then is to provide something more of a 'field guide' that can be carried around when fungus hunting. This book is much larger than the 'Gem' guides' but much smaller than the two books above. It generally covers the same number of species as the books above, but in a smaller size.
So what's missing? Well, the textual descriptions, while abbreviated, are more than sufficient for identification purposes, the main omission being descriptions of what pores look like under a microscope - not something most readers will investigate. Apart from this, however, a more noticeable omission is whether species are edible, inedible, poisonous or deadly. This has long been a fixture of fungus enyclopedias, but you won't find it here, except for a few key species. If you want this information, buy the Jordan or Phillips books.
So the text is fine, what about the pictures - a book like this will usually be used by flicking through and looking at the photos. The photos in the book are of good quality, but they are all taken of upright fungi, and generally do not show the features of the stipe (stem) and gills/pores. Unfortunately without these gill/stipe shots it won't be possible to positively identify many species, and you will have to check another book, or search for images on the internet. The larger books, mentioned above, both have the space to provide more photography, which will make positive identification much more likely.
So in conclusion, the Jordan and Phillips books are the best fungus guides on the market, but if you are looking for a smaller 'field guide', this one is definitely the best available. Just don't be too disappointed if it turns out to be tricky to actually identify the fungi exclusively using this book.
The purpose of this book in the face of two such excellent guides then is to provide something more of a 'field guide' that can be carried around when fungus hunting. This book is much larger than the 'Gem' guides' but much smaller than the two books above. It generally covers the same number of species as the books above, but in a smaller size.
So what's missing? Well, the textual descriptions, while abbreviated, are more than sufficient for identification purposes, the main omission being descriptions of what pores look like under a microscope - not something most readers will investigate. Apart from this, however, a more noticeable omission is whether species are edible, inedible, poisonous or deadly. This has long been a fixture of fungus enyclopedias, but you won't find it here, except for a few key species. If you want this information, buy the Jordan or Phillips books.
So the text is fine, what about the pictures - a book like this will usually be used by flicking through and looking at the photos. The photos in the book are of good quality, but they are all taken of upright fungi, and generally do not show the features of the stipe (stem) and gills/pores. Unfortunately without these gill/stipe shots it won't be possible to positively identify many species, and you will have to check another book, or search for images on the internet. The larger books, mentioned above, both have the space to provide more photography, which will make positive identification much more likely.
So in conclusion, the Jordan and Phillips books are the best fungus guides on the market, but if you are looking for a smaller 'field guide', this one is definitely the best available. Just don't be too disappointed if it turns out to be tricky to actually identify the fungi exclusively using this book.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the tenth book of fungi I have bought so far*, and this probably ranks very close to the top if not the top because it is a good all rounder.
It's very comprehensive in its coverage (unlike many of the pocket guides) whilst remaining sufficiently small to be useful as a field guide (unlike Phillips and Jordan). Perhaps the only one I might possibly rate above this as a field guide is the Evans & Kibby book because of its well presented identification hints, although the arrangement of species within that book is a little unusual.
The photography, all taken in situ, is excellent although agarics and boletes are often represented by a single sample (which is something where Phillips excels by having multiple specimens, albeit uprooted and plonked on a table to be photographed).
There is a brief end section which contains information on tree identification and examples of fungi associated with different trees, helpful identification information which fungi books tend to lack. Whilst useful as a starter, I would have liked to have seen something more comprehensive.
On a final note, anyone looking to buy a book for identifying edible fungi should look elsewhere, as the edibility or otherwise of each species is not indicated.
(*After, in roughly size order,
Gardweidner, Mushrooms and Toadstools (Collins Nature Guide)
Anon, Field Guide to Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Britain and Europe
Spooner, Mushrooms and Toadstools (Collins Wild Guide)
Evans & Kibby, Fungi (Pocket Nature)
Grunert, Field Guide to Mushrooms of Britain and Europe
Lawrence & Harniess, Mushrooms and Other Fungi (Identification Guides)
Keizer, The Complete Encyclopedia of Mushrooms
Phillips, Mushrooms
Jordan, The Encyclopedia of Fungi of Britain and Europe)
It's very comprehensive in its coverage (unlike many of the pocket guides) whilst remaining sufficiently small to be useful as a field guide (unlike Phillips and Jordan). Perhaps the only one I might possibly rate above this as a field guide is the Evans & Kibby book because of its well presented identification hints, although the arrangement of species within that book is a little unusual.
The photography, all taken in situ, is excellent although agarics and boletes are often represented by a single sample (which is something where Phillips excels by having multiple specimens, albeit uprooted and plonked on a table to be photographed).
There is a brief end section which contains information on tree identification and examples of fungi associated with different trees, helpful identification information which fungi books tend to lack. Whilst useful as a starter, I would have liked to have seen something more comprehensive.
On a final note, anyone looking to buy a book for identifying edible fungi should look elsewhere, as the edibility or otherwise of each species is not indicated.
(*After, in roughly size order,
Gardweidner, Mushrooms and Toadstools (Collins Nature Guide)
Anon, Field Guide to Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Britain and Europe
Spooner, Mushrooms and Toadstools (Collins Wild Guide)
Evans & Kibby, Fungi (Pocket Nature)
Grunert, Field Guide to Mushrooms of Britain and Europe
Lawrence & Harniess, Mushrooms and Other Fungi (Identification Guides)
Keizer, The Complete Encyclopedia of Mushrooms
Phillips, Mushrooms
Jordan, The Encyclopedia of Fungi of Britain and Europe)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book has lots of great pictures, however the guide fails to mention if the mushrooms are edible or not. No good if you like picking mushrooms for your own omlettes or rissotos.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mushrooms and toadstool guide
I have been looking for a decent guide to fungi and this has nice clear photographic images, a good glossary and clear text. Read more
Published 18 days ago by JMP
Good for identification, but doesn't do what it says on the tin
At first glance this book seemed to be everything I wanted, with superb colour photographs, good descriptions and a handy size to carry around. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jaffanosha
Good quality but a bit disappointing
This is a field book and as such it will not tell you which mushrooms are edible and which ones are not, that's what it says in the introduction. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Marita
Could be more helpful
There is no doubt that this is a very detailed and thorough volume about British Mushrooms. In my opinion, it could have been laid out better to speed up recognition. Read more
Published 5 months ago by stugrieve
Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools ISBN...
The coverage of the book is much wider than that of other mushroom pocket identification guides. Yes, the 1,500 photographs is a typical number but that is where it ends. Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. J. Gough
A brilliant book for the amateur fungi forager
We saw this book on a recent fungi foray with a guide and were really impressed with it and decided we had to have our own copy. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Gigfy
A very good and almost truly excellent guide
I have a fair collection of fungus guides (including older Collins guides from 1975, 1982 (Gem) and 1994) and this is one of my top 4 favourites alongside Roger Phillips'... Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. J. Cowley
Mushrooms and Toadstools Identification
This is a very well illustrated guide and full of information and is probably as good a guide as any. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sussex Jude
Mushrooms and Toadstools
A superb book with most British species photographed on good quality paper, excellent when out in the field. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. E. Gendle
An up to date guide to British fungi.
There's no such thing as a "complete" guide to anything, whatever the publishers might claim, and the authors make this quite clear in their introduction, defining the scope of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. Holden
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