Introduction 7
What Are Mushrooms? 8
Humans and Ecology of Fungi 9
Fungi 10
The Redwood Coast 11
Trees of the Redwood Coast 12
Finding Mushrooms 16
Collecting Mushrooms 16
Identifying Mushrooms 16
Making Spore Prints 17
Tools of the Trade 17
Making Collections 17
Photographing Mushrooms 18
Collecting for the Table 18
Taxonomy and Cladistics 19
How to Read the Species Descriptions 20
A General Format of the Species Descriptions 20
Pictorial Key to the Major Sections 22
THE DESCRIPTIONS:
1 • Chanterelles and Gomphoids 29
2 • Amanita 38
3 • Lepiota and Allies 60
4 • Agaricus and Melanophyllum 79
5 • Dark-Spored Mushrooms 98
6 • Brown-Spored Decomposers 131
7 • Mycorrhizal Brown-Spored Mushrooms 154
8 • Cortinarius 172
9 • Entoloma and Allies 209
10 • Pluteus and Allies 226
11 • Russula and Lactarius 233
12 • Waxy Caps 275
13 • The White-Spored Multitude 302
14 • Pleurotoid Mushrooms 403
15 • Gilled Bolete Relatives 416
16 • Boletes 426
17 • Polypores and Allies 464
18 • Crust Fungi 489
19 • Tooth Fungi 496
20 • Coral and Club Mushrooms 511
21 • Puffballs, Earthballs, Earthstars, Stinkhorns, and Bird’s Nests 533
22 • Truffles 548
23 • Jelly Fungi 554
24 • Morels, False Morels, and Elfin Saddles 558
25 • Cup Fungi 565