109
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #243,981 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Not great for the Pacific Northwest: it's Black & White and Outdated
This book will sort of teach you how to read a key, but there are online resources that are much better. For example, in the Pacific Northwest where I live, there are two very good region-specific keys which can be found online:
The Svims Pacific Northwest Key Council and the Alpental Pictorial Key. Both can be found on google. The reason region-specific keys are better is because you won't ever find 90% of the mushrooms in this or any book when you are out foraging. Furthermore, in my area, the region specific keys are very good, in color, and they'll help you get better at identifying the specific families. I'd pass on this book, sadly.
I would, however, recommend All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms as a great field guide to carry around with you. Again, a lot of things you find will not be in there, but it's all in color, it's concise, and it emphasizes what you need to know to identify specific families.
