The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms is your ultimate guide to mycology. Whether you’ve never picked a mushroom before in your life or you’ve been cultivating mushrooms at home for ages, the expert advice in this comprehensive mushroom manual will transform your practice.

Never before have mushrooms generated so much interest, for their health benefits and medicinal properties, as well as a new understanding of their crucial role in a healthy environment and ability to regenerate damaged ones. If you are a newcomer, mycology, or the study of mushrooms and other fungi, can seem daunting. While other field guides are geared toward experts with advanced knowledge or regional in scope and aimed at only a few easy-to-recognize mushrooms, The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms by veteran mycologists Britt A. Bunyard and Tavis Lynch is a complete reference and guidebook to get you started identifying, cultivating, cooking, and preserving mushrooms.

The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms opens with important basics about wild mushrooming and how to use the book. Information about what fungi are and their role in the environment and around the home is provided in brief and very understandable terms. Basic wild mushroom anatomy is discussed along with how to identify mushrooms and various characteristics to look for—of great importance if you are interested in learning how to recognize edible wild species…as well as dangerous look-alikes. The guide then covers:

• All the major groups of wild mushrooms, pointing out habitat, region, and notable characteristics—large photographs with easy-to-view characteristics facilitate correct identification. 
• Mushroom cultivation—with easy-to-follow illustrated instructions, learn how to grow mushrooms at home, including how to collect wild specimens and domesticate them.
• Culinary uses and how to preserve wild mushrooms to be enjoyed in the kitchen all year round.

Begin your wonderful exploration of wild mushrooms with this accessible yet thorough beginner's guide.

Discover, identify, harvest, and grow mushrooms with confidence—no experience required.

The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms is the complete starter handbook to mushroom identification, foraging, cultivation, and cooking, written by two leading mycology experts.

Mushroom foraging and identification can feel intimidating to newcomers. This accessible field guide + how-to manual removes the guesswork and gives you the knowledge and skills to start safely.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• Mushroom identification basics: anatomy, key visual traits, spore prints, habitat clues, and how to confidently distinguish edible wild mushrooms from poisonous look-alikes.
• Top wild mushrooms for beginners: large photos, clear descriptions, seasonality, geographic range, and foraging tips.
• Home mushroom cultivation: step-by-step illustrated tutorials for growing mushrooms indoors or outdoors—from kits to logs to DIY methods.
• Cooking & preserving mushrooms: simple techniques for cleaning, storing, dehydrating, and using mushrooms in delicious recipes year-round.
• Mushroom ecology & medicinal benefits: learn how fungi support healthy forests, soil regeneration, and sustainable living.

Whether you're exploring the woods for your first morel, starting a home mushroom grow, or simply curious about the natural world, this book gives you everything you need to join the growing community of mushroom enthusiasts.

Your journey into mycology starts here—identify mushrooms with confidence, forage responsibly, and enjoy the incredible world of fungi.