Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California - Softcover

Siegel, Noah; Schwarz, Christian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607748177 ISBN 13: 9781607748175

Publisher: Ten Speed Press, 2016

A comprehensive and user-friendly field guide for identifying the many mushrooms of the northern California coast, from Monterey County to the Oregon border.

Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast will help beginning and experienced mushroom hunters alike to find and identify mushrooms, from common to rare, delicious to deadly, and interesting to beautiful. This user-friendly reference covers coastal California from Monterey County to the Oregon border with full treatments of more than 750 species, and references to hundreds more. With tips on mushroom collecting, descriptions of specific habitats and biozones, updated taxonomy, and outstanding photography, this guide is far and away the most modern and comprehensive treatment of mushrooms in the region. Each species profile pairs a photograph with an in-depth description, as well as notes on ecology, edibility, toxicity, and look-alike species. Written by mushroom identification experts and supported by extensive field work, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast is an indispensable guide for anyone curious about fungi.

About the Author:

NOAH SIEGEL's field mycology skills are extensive – he has spent two decades seeking, photographing, identifying, and furthering his knowledge about all aspects of macrofungi. He has hunted for mushrooms throughout the United States and Canada, as well as on multiple expeditions to New Zealand and Australia. 
   He is one of the premier mushroom photographers in the nation, having won numerous awards from the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) photography contest. His technique and attention to detail are unrivaled, arising from a philosophy of maximizing utility for identification purposes while maintaining a high degree of aesthetic appeal. 
   His photographs have appeared on the covers and have been featured in articles of multiple issues of FUNGI Magazine and Mushroom the Journal, the primary mushroom enthusiast magazines in the United States, numerous mushroom books, as well as NAMA and other club publications. 
   He is past president of the Monadnock Mushroomers Unlimited, (MMU) a mushroom club based out of Keene, NH, and is an active member of the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society and the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz. 
   Noah travels and lectures extensively across America, following the mushrooms. 
CHRISTIAN SCHWARZ is a naturalist interested in the diversity of living organisms in general, but the seemingly endless forms (whether grotesque, bizarre, or sublime) of fungi in particular stoke his curiosity. He spends most of his time teaching about natural history, collecting and photographing mushrooms, assembling an exhaustive mycoflora for Santa Cruz County (www.scmycoflora.org), and exploring wilderness around the world. He is particularly interested in the role of citizen scientists in the future of ecological and taxonomic research.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction 

The rugged edge of the continent upon which Coast Redwoods dwell is fantastically beautiful land. The warm, dry summers and rainy winters that bathe this area’s varied terrain create a great diversity of habitats, which are home to mushrooms and other fungi: a tremendously diverse but often overlooked community of organisms. 

Mushroom identification as a hobby has an obvious end goal: to be able to attach names to organisms and communicate about them reliably and effectively. But pursuing this goal necessarily involves continually honing and developing increased awareness of other fungi, which leads to outcomes more subtle and more profound. You will learn a few mushrooms your first year, and the next year you will learn a few more; then you will have experiences that challenge you to question your own knowledge, as well as some that strengthen it. You will eventually be surprised at how much you know (and how much more you are left wondering about!). More importantly, with every step you take down this road, your world will expand. You will begin to notice slime molds, mosses, lichens, tiny insects, and the various other minute habitats that surround fungi, and you will soon wonder about all of these as well. 

Paired with your persistence, curiosity, and time spent in the woods, this guide will help you become familiar with the names and faces of fungi on the Redwood Coast, and give you a glimpse of what we know about their role in California’s ecosystems. We hope that this book will encourage beginners to dive in to the world of California’s fungi, as well as assist and encourage more experienced identifiers as they push our collective knowledge forward. 

Coast Redwoods are a magnificent and irreplaceable part of our heritage, and we should strive to protect the ecosystems that support them. We hope that this book will serve as a reminder that this coast is also home to a great diversity of fungi. They are rarely given attention in conservation efforts (perhaps due to their intermittent visibility), but fungi are always there. Whether busy on roots, in soil, on moss, or in the heartwood of trees, they are essential to the dynamics of forests.

• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1607748177
• ISBN 13: 9781607748175
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608