Mushrooms

Over the years I've owned or used a number of books to help me try and identify fungi that I've come across. Often I've struggled to come to a definite identification and usually felt that the books I've looked at have been lacking in good photos or illustrations.

Take for example this fungi I photographed about 10 feet in the air just outside the churchyard in Kirby Lonsdale.

I couldn't work out what type of fungi it was from the books I had. Eventually after consulting at least two if not more of the fungi books of a friendly blogger I came to the conclusion that it was a porcelain fungus or in Latin Oudemansiella mucida.

During our Honeymoon we took a trip to Dawyck Botanic Garden (more on the garden in later postings). They have a lovely new visitor centre which contains a nature orientated bookshop. Flicking through a book on mushrooms my eye was caught by one of the plates showing a perfect picture of the porcelain fungus -- so close to what I had seen that there was no room for doubt. Of course I now own a copy of said book, Mushrooms by Roger Phillips. I'd certainly recommend anyone who has an interest in mushrooms to buy a copy. For reference here is the photo that caught my eye.

If you want to see more of the photos and to get an idea of the accompanying text then Roger also maintains a very good website devoted to mushrooms.

My Rating: A truly excellent book, the best book on mushrooms I've ever used.