The 7 Best Mushroom Field Guides (2023 reviews)

We consider a mushroom field guide to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Todd F Elliott Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best For New foragers: Buy: Karl B MCKNIGHT Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best For foraging In New England: Buy: Teresa Marrone Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best For PA: Buy: Bill Russell Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best For beginner: Buy: Orson Miller Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best current Field Guide: Buy: Walter E Sturgeon Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best little Book: Buy: Bleu Sayles Mushroom Field Guide READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Todd F Elliott Mushroom Field Guide

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The todd f elliott mushroom field guide's high-end materials makes sure that it ages well with use. If you live in the southeast and like mushrooms, this book is a must have. It's a great size and is lightweight but sturdy. They are arranged by groups with color code across the top of the page. Even if you do not have a microscope, and are not conversant with technical language, the book is excellent for mushroom ID.

This is imminently portable, contains keys for the most common mushrooms that is absent from many that depend on shape, color and other distinguishing features alone and a nice summary of features that includes how edible they are. The key with color coded pages makes the book easy to navigate.

If you're looking for a book with some nice pictures, this is a good book. The book also includes a glossary and index for easy referencing/cross referencing as well as a small tape measure across the back of the cover to get quick measurements.

• An essential guidebook for mushroom hunting, the perfect social distancing sport
• Great book if you love walking in the woods and discovering what you find
• Delivers what they promise

Best For New foragers: Karl B MCKNIGHT Mushroom Field Guide

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Compared with other guide in this category, the karl b mcknight mushroom field guide has a convenient design. There are many mushroom guides in print, as culinary interests in these fungal fruiting bodies grows. This is a good reference guide for eatible fungi. It's compact due to the fact that it provides only the most pertinent information for mushroom identification and edibility. It has managed to make easily accessible a lot of detailed information about the fungi.

This book is excellent for getting to know local mushroom species and exploring on a hike. The illustrations are stunning and the organization is simple and straight forward. It is great for new foragers. The book itself is small and easy to carry out into the field as well.

• Illustrations are detailed and well done
• New and interesting way to identify fungi in the field
• Thoughtfully laid out and pleasurable to use
• Good small size and full of useful information and detailed drawings

Best For foraging In New England: Teresa Marrone Mushroom Field Guide

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Best part: teresa marrone mushroom field guide costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. An important feature of this book is a small section that accentuates the inadvisability of subscribing to "Old Wives Tales" in an attempt to ascertain the edibility of a given species. The information is accessible without being dumbed down too much, and there is a lot of good information about mushrooms in general to help you in identifying the species that you find.

This book is great alot of information and excellent pictures small enough to take along on mushroom hunts. It fits in your pocket and it’s ready to go when you are. The Top Edible and Top Toxics sections are clever & useful. It is easy to access the way, from choice of mushrooms to poison. It is a great size also, allowing you to easily bring it with you on your hunting excursions. The book is laid out very well from a beginner’s stand point.

• Shows the edible mushrooms in the north east with colored pictures
• A good guide to edible mushrooms and what not to eat
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best For PA: Bill Russell Mushroom Field Guide

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We would, of course, be remiss if we didn't mention bill russell mushroom field guide for daily purpose. This book is great for beginners who want good information. It really helps narrow things down and is one more aid to help the non-scientist with mushroom identification. The book is very well written and due to it's size is useful to take into the woods during foraging outings.

This book provides good insight on what to look for and things to avoid. It gives you good detailed information of what mushrooms are in the book. The book is compact enough to throw in your day pack, unlike so many others that are much to large to use in the field. This is a good book to help to identify edible and poisonous mushrooms.

• Technical terms are concisely explained with clear, easy to understand layman's language
• Good book to take on mushroom hunts
• Delivers what they promise

Best For beginner: Orson Miller Mushroom Field Guide

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Orson Miller offers a variety of guide for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. This comprehensive book for expert and amateur alike offers tips on how, where, and when to collect wild mushrooms. This guide focuses a lot more on whether or not the mushroom is edible. It is very important that you read everything so you can properly identify mushrooms, especially if you intend to eat them.

The descriptions provide a good starting point of knowledge on every mushroom in the book. This is less for foraging and more for an entire North American fungi encyclopedia with beautiful pictures and great descriptions. This book has great pictures and is very informative. This mushroom guide could use better photographs but it is still the best one out there for hunters and identification.

• A must for your gathering of mushrooms
• Has many good quality pictures with the fact and comments equally as defining
• Easy to navigate and make identifications

Best current Field Guide: Walter E Sturgeon Mushroom Field Guide

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Walter E Sturgeon offers a variety of guide for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. It's a much needed book that fills a fungal niche vacant for a long time. It contains basically every common fungi you can see in the region. Rather than one large cumbersome key at the beginning, mushrooms are grouped by genus and there is a simplified key for each genus or group. It is easy to carry, nice to have a backpack to slide it into though.

The color photography that accompanies each listing is simply stunning, while the descriptions are far-ranging, including each mushroom's scientific name, edibility, cap, pores and flesh description, and helpful commentary about the species. This makes it easy to get down to the species level. It is a much needed book that fills a fungal niche vacant for a long time.

• Very useful field guide that has great explanations and photos
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best little Book: Bleu Sayles Mushroom Field Guide

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate guide. The bleu sayles mushroom field guide is exactly that - it's a simple guide that hits all the right notes. It's a fantastic foraging mushroom book. It’s a well written book that both the novice and expert forager will find value in. This book has a lot of different recipes for the mushrooms. They're super informative and easy to follow.

This book is good and has useful knowledge and would be good for any one who loves mushrooms. It is easy to read a book with clear colored pictures. It is a great beginner's mushroom foraging guide.

• Must have field guide for foraging mushrooms
• Super recommend these for beginners and experienced foragers alike
• Great book to have in your stash
• Helpful high-res photos help considerably too