BUILD YOUR FIELD LIBRARY The right book depends on what you want to find.No single mushroom guide does everything well. Start with a strong regional book, then add more specialized references as your interests grow. AMS RECOMMENDS Books we would actually hand to someone.Every book on this page has been recommended by Alabama Mushroom Society leadership. Broad field guides are useful because they introduce many kinds of fungi. More specialized books usually cover fewer groups in much greater depth. Most people are better served by several good references than by trying to find one enormous book that answers every question. AMS does not receive compensation for these recommendations except for sales of the book published by our society. WHERE SHOULD I START? Start with the question you are trying to answer.
NEW TO MUSHROOMS
I need a field guide.Start with books written for the Southeast and neighboring ecological regions. See regional guides → FORAGINGI want to learn edible mushrooms.Use a focused guide that teaches identification, look-alikes, season, habitat, and preparation. See edible guides → GOING DEEPERI keep reaching the limits of my field guide.Boletes, milkcaps, amanitas, waxcaps, polypores, microscopy and other groups deserve their own books. See specialist references →ALABAMA-FIRST PICKS Start close to home.A guide written for the Southeast usually earns more space in an Alabama field bag than a book attempting to cover an entire continent. 
EXCELLENT PLACE TO START
Mushrooms of the SoutheastA practical regional guide covering many of the common mushrooms encountered in the Southeast. Its geographic focus makes it especially useful as an early field guide for Alabama. Find a copy →
STRONG KEYS
A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the CarolinasA useful Southeastern guide with approachable identification keys and good coverage of many fungi also encountered in Alabama. Find a copy →
APPALACHIAN REGION
Appalachian MushroomsA strong field reference for Appalachian, Piedmont, mountain, and forest habitats that overlap substantially with northern and eastern Alabama. Find a copy →
VERY RELEVANT TO ALABAMA
A Field Guide to the Mushrooms of GeorgiaGeorgia shares much of Alabama's climate, vegetation, and fungal diversity, making this a particularly useful regional reference. Find a copy →
GULF COAST
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast StatesWritten specifically for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, this fills an important geographic niche—particularly for fungi of southern Alabama and the coastal plain. Find a copy →
FROM THE ALABAMA MUSHROOM SOCIETY Edible Wild Mushroom Foraging & IdentificationLearn a manageable group of edible mushrooms well instead of trying to eat everything with a cap. This guide focuses on readily identifiable edible mushrooms found in Alabama and nearby states, with particular attention to the characters that establish an identification and the look-alikes that need to be ruled out. The book contains more than 500 photographs across 220 pages and organizes mushrooms by form to make the learning process approachable for newer foragers.
220
pages
500+
photographs
AL + REGION
geographic focus
BIGGER REFERENCES When a regional field guide isn't enough.These books cover large portions of North America or unusually broad groups of fungi. They belong on the shelf even when they do not belong in your pocket. 
THE CLASSIC
Mushrooms DemystifiedAn enormous identification reference with a depth of practical information that remains difficult to match. Published taxonomy is now substantially dated in places. Use the identification information, but cross-check current scientific names. Find a copy →
MODERN GENERAL REFERENCE
National Audubon Society Mushrooms of North AmericaThe modern Audubon treatment replaces the old 1981 guide with updated classification and an extensive collection of color photographs. Find a copy →
A DIFFERENT HALF OF THE HOBBY
Ascomycete Fungi of North AmericaA substantial reference for the enormous ascomycete branch of the fungal kingdom—including many cups, morels, clubs and other forms poorly represented in ordinary mushroom guides. Find a copy →SPECIAL INTEREST Eventually, one group gets its hooks into you.Specialist books become valuable when the few pages devoted to a group in a general field guide stop answering your questions. 
BOLETES
Boletes of Eastern North AmericaThe more geographically focused and newer bolete reference from the Bessettes and William Roody. Particularly useful for our region. Find a copy →
BOLETES
North American BoletesThe older broad North American treatment by Alan Bessette, William Roody and Arleen Bessette. Still a useful companion to newer regional work. Find a copy →
MILKCAPS
Milk Mushrooms of North AmericaA field guide to Lactarius and allied fungi by Alan Bessette, David Harris and Arleen Bessette, covering more than 150 species. Find a copy →
TRICHOLOMA
Tricholomas of North AmericaA focused treatment of the large genus Tricholoma, with more than 100 species and extensive color plates. Find a copy →
WAXCAPS
Waxcap Mushrooms of Eastern North AmericaA dedicated treatment of the colorful members of Hygrophoraceae by Alan Bessette, William Roody, Walter Sturgeon and Arleen Bessette. Find a copy →
AMANITA
Amanitas of North AmericaBritt Bunyard and Jay Justice's dedicated treatment of one of the most conspicuous, ecologically important, and identification-heavy mushroom genera. Find a copy →
MICROSCOPY
How to Identify Mushrooms to Genus IIIDavid Largent, David Johnson and Roy Watling's reference on microscopic characters, equipment, techniques, and interpretation. Find a copy →
POLYPORES
Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North AmericaAlan Bessette, Dianna Smith and Arleen Bessette. A much-needed modern field guide with useful keys, strong color photography, and coverage extending beyond the handful of conspicuous polypores found in general guides. Find a copy →
LANGUAGE
A Mushroom Word GuideRobert Hallock's guide to the etymology, pronunciation, and meanings of more than 1,500 words used in mushroom and fungal identification. Find a copy →FORAGING LIBRARY Identification first. Cooking second.Foraging books are most useful when they teach why an identification is correct—not merely whether a mushroom has been called edible. Edible Wild Mushroom Foraging & IdentificationAlabama-focused, photograph-heavy, and deliberately limited to a manageable group of edible species. Buy from the printer →100 Edible MushroomsMichael Kuo's approachable guide covers identification difficulty, look-alikes, habitat, and cooking for 100 edible fungi. Find a copy →BEFORE YOU BUY ANOTHER GUIDE What makes a mushroom book useful?GeographyA beautiful guide to western mushrooms can be much less useful in Alabama than a smaller book written for the Southeast. Identification toolsLook for usable keys, comparisons, descriptions of diagnostic characters, and discussion of similar species. Useful photographsA mushroom guide should show more than attractive cap photographs. Undersides, stems, bases and variation matter. DepthGeneral guides introduce groups. Specialist books become more valuable once you start trying to separate similar species within those groups. Publication dateNewer books usually reflect more current taxonomy, but an older reference can still contain excellent morphological and ecological information. Your interestsBuy the book that answers questions you are already asking in the field. That is usually the one you will actually use. NAMES CHANGE An old book can still be a good book.Fungal taxonomy changes faster than bookshelves do. DNA sequencing and taxonomic revision regularly move familiar species into new genera, split one old name into several species, or reveal that North American fungi are not the same organisms as similarly named European species. That does not make older books useless. Morphology, ecology, field characters, and identification discussions can remain extremely valuable. Treat the scientific name as something to verify, especially when using older references. BUILD THE SHELF CHEAPER Used books are still books.Many specialist references are expensive or out of print. Before paying collector prices for a new copy, check the used-book market. BOOKS + MUSHROOMS Take the guide into the woods.The best reference becomes much more useful once the terminology on the page is connected to a mushroom in your hand. |
