Hence it includes many Continental species that have not been found in Britain, though fewer than you might suppose, for fungi tend to be more widely distributed than plants. This is a really practical book that will be a boon to field mycologists, especially in temperate regions. The text, including the usual introductory section on fungal lives and identification, is, allowing for its international flavour, excellent. There has been quite a run of mushroom books lately, each outdoing the last in terms of the quality of the illustrations, but this one simply takes your breath away.

The books are divided into 80 “form groups” each starting with an innovative comparison wheel with guiding photos, distinguishing characteristics and drawings of essential microscopic features. Daniel Dvořák, Petr Hrouda, Czech Mycology "One of the best comprehensive fungal guides for this European region currently available . Including agarics, boletes, chanterelles and morels but also more obscure groups such as cyphelloids, cup fungi, pyrenomycetous fungi and hysterioids, this guide takes an unprecedentedly broad approach to communicating fungal diversity. With a wheel or two at the start of each new batch of fungi, it is an attractive, illustrative way of getting to the right group quickly, certainly much more quickly than with technical synoptic keys. The books are divided into eighty "form groups," each starting with an innovative comparison wheel with guiding photos, distinguishing characteristics and drawings of essential microscopic features.Not only for people in Europe is this the best guidebook to get, it also is extremely useful for people in other parts of the world.

It is very useful both for professionals and for everyone interested in this fascinating group of organisms.The authors are to be congratulated on this truly remarkable achievement, making their many years of practical experience in macrofungal identification available to mycologists at large. Peter Marren, British Wildlife "Not only for people in Europe is this the best guidebook to get, it also is extremely useful for people in other parts of the world. The authors are both English-speaking Danes, and Laessoe, at least, has worked in Britain and knows British fungi. Including agarics, boletes, chanterelles and morels but also more obscure groups such as cyphelloids, cup fungi, pyrenomycetous fungi and hysterioids, this guide takes an unprecedented broad approach at communicating fungal diversity. The fungal kingdom; fungal nutrition; Fungal biogeography and habitats; Asexual propagation; Fruitbodies; Microscopy; Tastes and smells; Working with fruitbodies; General identification wheels; Chanterelles and the like.

But the greatest strength of Fungi of Temperate Europe lies in its illustrations, which, I repeat, are simply glorious. something all field mycologists who see it will want to have on the bench near their microscopes when making identifications.

The books are divided into 80 "form groups" each starting with an innovative comparison wheel with guiding photos, distinguishing characteristics and drawings of essential microscopic features. Some 2,500 species are described, including nearly every fungus you can identify without a microscope (and a lot that you cannot). Although the authors do their level best to make the subject accessible – jargon is minimal – the book will be most useful to those with some previous experience of identifying fungi. Revealing the world of fungi in all its splendour, Fungi of Temperate Europe is a must-have resource for any amateur or professional mycologist. You get used to the faintly odd language, some of which is not in the glossary: for example, ‘meteoric’ (meaning, I think, appearing in sudden spasms at long intervals), ‘sordid’ (dirty-looking), ‘speciose’ (a genus with lots of species in it), ‘turgid’ (fresh and swollen with fluid).