by Debbie Viess, Bay Area Mycological Society
This fall, two new field guides on fungi of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) were published, both with essentially the same name: the first, a second edition of Dr. Michael Beug’s 2021 book, retitled Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest; and the second, by Noah Siegel and Christian Schwarz, titled Mushrooms of Cascadia: A Comprehensive Guide to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest. There has been some confusion around their having the same titles, to the point where Backcountry Press, which published the later Siegel/Schwarz book, felt the need to address the issue on its webpage.
Dr. Beug published his book first after decades spent studying PNW fungi in his home region. But we shouldn’t think of these as competing books, where one must choose a side; they are best thought of as amiable companions. Beug’s guide is a quick and portable way to identify fungi right in the field, whereas Siegel and Schwarz’ book provides a deep dive into Cascadian mycology, something to be savored at home.
I hope my two-part review can help you decide which book is right for you – but frankly, why not acquire both? Be sure to buy these directly from the authors, their publishers or at independent bookstores. [Please see full review on p. 55 in October-November-December 2024 Mycophile Quarterly, “A Two-Part Book Review.”]
If you love mushrooms and often hunt for them in the great PNW – anywhere from coastal Northern California on up to Southwest Alaska, over to Montana, down through the Cascades and along the western Rockies as far as the Colorado Plateau – I suggest picking up a copy of Dr. Michael Beug’s fine new book: Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key to the Fungi of the Pacific Northwest. The “Cascadia” region can be variously defined; Beug takes the broad view.
This is the recently published second edition of Beug’s book. His First Edition was published in 2021, with the slightly different title, Mushrooms of Cascadia: An Illustrated Key. Beug is the perfect person to write about this region; he knows these fungi intimately, having lived in the PNW for more than 50 years. He is Professor Emeritus of mycology and chemistry at Evergreen State College in Washington State. His mad skills in writing keys (those of us who have attempted to write our own mushroom keys know that it is NOT easy!) were honed through many decades of working with the Pacific Northwest Key Council. This dedicated group of talented, fungally obsessed men and women have created many useful, detailed and publicly available online fungal keys, without a paywall. Beug has carried on this altruistic tradition throughout his career.
With encouragement from old friend and former student Paul Stamets, Beug decided to publish a general field guide to the PNW but entirely in a key form; these two editions of his book were the result.
Expanding upon the first edition, the new book’s cover is decorated with a brilliant array of beautiful fungi. Beug added forty new species and more photos. Recent nomenclatural changes were incorporated. As we suffering taxonomists know, even some of these names will soon be out of date! 1,500 species are described (Beug informed me that the 3,000 species listed on the book jacket is an editorial error) and the book’s 1,092 included photos illustrate most of them. Lookalikes to illustrated species are also mentioned. Each species is briefly described, including edibility, toxicity, time and location of fruiting. Odor and taste are all covered.
Pictorial and then descriptive keys take you to species, not just similar-looking groups, and highlight important species differences. This information allows you to narrow your search without reading through reams of text. At each branch in the key, you need to choose the sentence that best fits your mushroom. Keys for the agarics (gilled mushrooms) require that you take a spore print, unless of course you already know the spore color; spore prints can be useful, no matter what jaded fungal folks may say on Facebook! Of course, no key or book will give you every possible mushroom in your area, but this book gives you a very good chance of finding the most common ones and a few rarities, too.
This is a tremendously useful book for both beginners and more experienced mushroom hunters, easy to use, small enough to carry and reasonably priced. In fact, this larger new edition by Ten Speed Press is slightly less expensive than the first edition! Although the fungal descriptions are brief, deeper details can be found on any keyed species in the free-to-download identification program and app Mycomatch, a creation of another Key Council member, Ian Gibson.
Beug doesn’t just identify fungi, he eats them with relish – but bear in mind that, as with all mushroom-field-guide authors, he has his edibility biases with which your own palate may differ. He provides a few of his favorite recipes and ways to process your fungi safely once you get home to your kitchen. He writes knowledgeably about the flavors of various fungi and the absurdity of eating tiny things. He has deep knowledge of their toxicity, as both a chemist and as the Toxicology Committee Chair for NAMA for several decades. Edibility and toxicology are discussed for all species illustrated. As someone who fields mushroom-poisoning cases on a regular basis, he is understandably conservative in his edibility recommendations. I was both amused and pleased to see that, as regards the edibility of the vast genus Cortinarius, he allows that species of unknown edibility may well be edible; we just don’t know. Of course, he also emphasizes the one deadly Cortinarius found in the PNW, the rarely encountered C. rubellus, which contains the highly nephrotoxic orellanine. But rather than let that one species color all of the rest, he allows that many more might be edible (even if not good), a refreshing take.
The heart of this book is the keys and the ability to identify fungi mostly by macro characters. Are you frustrated when trying to identify Ramaria? I sure am. Beug is an expert in Ramaria and it shows. His key to the Pacific Northwest Ramaria uses first color, then distinctive features, time of year appearing, etc., to help you get to your species. No time to waste when identifying Ramaria – they lose their beautiful colors within a day of picking!
There is an extensive Cortinarius section, which sometimes even lists the unique colors seen under UV light. Use of a UV light in species identifications has become more popular within the amateur community and it is fun to have that data available here. One could easily write a book on PNW Cortinarius alone. Beug states that Cortinarius is the most abundant genus found under Oregon White Oak in the PNW, with many species still undescribed.
Mostly the book is illustrated by Beug’s own photos, followed by several dozen photos by his late mentor Kitt Scates Barnhart, a dozen or so from the late Harley Barnhart and a handful from Paul Stamets (mostly Psilocybe species, of course!). The book is portable, well bound and printed on high-quality paper; a perfect addition to your basket of field necessities.
Dr. Beug has donated his time, experience and abilities, not just in taxonomy but in his tireless work in fungal toxicology for NAMA, for decades. Do the man a solid and yourself a favor: buy this book. You won’t be disappointed.
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