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Preface
The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the diversity of mushrooms gracing the
tables of our restaurants and the shelves of our supermarkets. While the increased consumption has
consisted primarily of cultivated varieties of Asian origin, there has also been an upsurge of interest in
mushrooms that can be obtained only from the wild.
A concern over a lack of knowledge in Australasia, the often prevailing opinion that "if it's natural it
must he edible," and some significant incidents of mushroom poisonings prompted the development
and ultimate publication of a book on the subject in New Zealand in 1998. The book, written by Ian
Hall, Peter Buchanan, Wang Yun, and Tony Cole, covered the most important edible and poisonous
mushrooms that Australians and New Zealanders might encounter in the wild, as well as the edible
mushrooms that could be purchased in supermarkets. The original authors were joined by Steve
Stephenson, a mycologist from the United States, and their combined efforts produced this new book.
Whereas the first book mentioned or illustrated about 205 taxa, this book treats about 280 taxa, and
many taxa only mentioned or illustrated in the first book are now discussed. The resulting reference
is truly international in its coverage and will appeal to enthusiasts from around the world.
Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the World is aimed at individuals who are interested in
mushrooms and wish to expand their knowledge about the subject, including information on the roles
of fungi in nature and how they can be grown and cultivated. The introduction provides essential
background information about what mushrooms are, both poisonous and edible, how they are named,
and how they fit into the big picture, both as part of the natural world and as part of the world market.
The first section, Cultivating Mushrooms, divides its attention between nonmycorrhizal mushrooms,
including the eight most popular saprobic mushrooms, and mycorrhizal mushrooms, with an emphasis
on the Périgord black truffle. The second section, Collecting Wild Mushrooms, discusses the
identification and collection of mushrooms and the rules that should he followed when picking them. It
also includes a helpful list of the major poisoning syndromes and the mushrooms known to be
associated with each one. The final section, A List of Wild Mushrooms, is the cornerstone of the
hook, providing details of size, colour, habit, and other identifying factors for the world's most common
edible wild mushrooms (including those with major international markets), for poisonous species that
should be avoided at all costs, and for mushroom curiosities likely to be encountered in nature.
Many hundreds of species of questionable or unknown edibility have been omitted, as have a large
number of lesser edible mushrooms that may he important in one country but not in others. For
information on these species it would be wise to consult mushroom field guides in the relevant
country.
A vast amount of information on mushrooms can be found on various Web sites, a few of which are
listed in Mushroom Cultivation with Special Emphasis on Appropriate Techniques for Developing
Countries (Oei 1996) and related articles in the Mycologist magazine. Simply typing the word
"mushroom" into a general search engine will bring up tens of thousands of references. A more
useful and orderly search can he obtained by accessing Cornell University's WWW Virtual Library of
Mycology. While a good proportion of the information available from the Web is of high quality, much
of it is also ephemeral, and this creates major problems for those using it. Web addresses also have
a tendency to change when those who created the Web page change employment or move to
another server. Consequently, the list of Web addresses at the back of the book includes only those
sites expected to be reasonably permanent, such as those run by universities or other major
institutions.
At the back of the book Chinese Names of Mushrooms links Chinese script and pinyin common
names to their scientific and common European equivalents.
