Astounding Mushrooms, Hardcover

Astounding Mushrooms features gorgeous full-color photographs of more than 200 mushroom species in their wild habitat. The close-up images reveal every size of growth, every shade of color, every shadow of silhouette, and every detail of texture. Chapter text sheds light on this unique living species, neither animal nor plant. Concise captions identify the mushrooms and provide further description of their biology.

As Astounding Mushrooms reveals, mushrooms are astonishingly diverse. Shapes include buttons, nests, fans, feet, clubs, hooves, trumpets, mesh, tentacles, stars, tubes, and spines. Textures are smooth, shiny or pimpled. They can be dry or wet, edible or deadly. Nuanced colors and blushes include yellows, reds, blues, and greens. They may be speckled, stinky, slimy, hairy, or fuzzy. Some wear a hat, a "skirt", or can even move.

Wild mushrooms are enjoyed by an increasing number of locavores, vegans and wild food enthusiasts. Chefs everywhere are foraging wild foods, including mushrooms. Mushroom hunting tours have become popular, and mycolophiles are sharing their enthusiasm and identification tips online.

Astounding Mushrooms invites readers into the extraordinary fungi universe.

Alain Bellocq is a mycologist specializing in the study of the Inocybe genre, who trained with Marcel Bon, a mycologist of worldwide reputation. He is president of the Association Mycologique de l'Ouest de la France and secretary of the L'Observatoire Mycologique.

Jaroslav Maly is a mycologist and member of the Czech Mycology Society. He created a mycologist club near Prague in Melnik, where he lives today. His photographs are published regularly in journals and books.