A new edition of the classic, best-selling field guide to mushrooms from Peterson Field Guides

Toadstools, truffles, boletes and morels, witches’ butter, conks, corals, puffballs and earthstars: mushrooms are both mysterious and ecologically essential. They can also be either delicious or deadly. Thousands of different species of mushrooms appear across North America in the woods, backyards, and in unexpected corners. Learning to distinguish them is a rewarding challenge for a naturalist or chef. Covering most of the common edible and poisonous species readers are likely to encounter, this portable-sized field guide takes a new, simple approach to the method of mushroom identification based on key features that do not require a microscope or technical vocabulary. In addition to the watercolors from the original edition, hundreds more illustrations have been added. This is the ultimate, most comprehensive guide to mushrooms available. 

For more than 85 years, Peterson Field Guides have set the standard by which other field guides are measured. Comprehensive and authoritative, they are essential additions to any naturalist's bookshelf or backpack.

KARL MCKNIGHT is a professor of biology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He is the author of Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians.

JOSEPH ROHRER taught a variety of botany classes at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire for over 30 years.

KIRSTEN MCKNIGHT WARD is a botanist, artist, designer, and educator. She lives with her husband and daughter in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

KENT MCKNIGHT was a world-renowned mycologist and the author of the first edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms.