Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #258595 in Books
• Published on: 1981-08-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

A 'must' for all fungi-philes
Without question the best overall look at European fungi. There are shorter guides for those who are only interested in eating mushrooms (like myself), but they should still arm themselves with this book to confirm their identification. It is both comprehensive and user-friendly: a rare achievement when it comes to the myriad of confusing species that confront the would-be mycologist.

One of the best books about European mushrooms
This photographic guide by Roger Phillips was a wonderful book when it was published first, and still is one you must have if you're interested in mushrooms. I have a lot of photographic mushroom books in my library, and, nearly twenty years after its publication, this one has one of the highest standards in colour illustrations of fungi. The mushrooms have been photographed on a pan, not in the woods, but this only helps you to better see the features of each species. The identification of species - unlike other recent guides - is nearly perfect and stands very well after almost two decades. All in all, a very complete and magnificently illustrated book to start identifying mushrooms. The only reason I gave four and not five stars is that the publisher should think to prepare an updated edition with up-to-date nomenclature.

The pioneer - and still the best guide for identifying European fungi
I bought this pioneering book when it came out in the early 1980s for identifying British fungi. At the time it was revolutionary as the use of photographs allowed the author to depict mushrooms much more accurately than the paintings of earlier guides. It is still one of the top field guides to this region (also check Courtecuisse & Duhem and Jordan). I still use this volume a lot for identifying American fungi, both in the tropics and North America. Although I have over 200 field guides of different sorts on my shelves this remains one of my all time favourites. If you're interested in fungi, don't hesitate.