Mushrooms of the Southeast

by Todd F. Elliott, Steven L. Stephenson

Overview

Ideal for hikers, foragers, and naturalists, the Timber Press Field Guides are the perfect tools for loving where you live.

Mushrooms of the Southeast is a comprehensive field guide to the most conspicuous, distinctive, and ecologically important mushrooms found in the region. This useful guide features introductory chapters on the basics of mushroom structure, life cycles, and habitats. Profiles include color photographs, keys, and diagrams to aid in identification, and tips on how to recognize and avoid poisonous mushrooms. 

• Covers Alabama, Arkansas, northern Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
• Describes and illustrates more than 350 species
• 348 photographs, with additional keys and diagrams
• Clear, color-coded layout

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604697308
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/24/2018
Series:	A Timber Press Field Guide
Pages:	408
Sales rank:	167,645
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Todd Elliott is a freelance naturalist, biologist, photographer, and forager. His research has led him to studies in fungal biology and taxonomy that have taken him to remote corners of the world to explore tropical rainforests, temperate woodlands, deserts, beaches, and high mountains on six continents. 

Steven L. Stephenson is a research professor at the University of Arkansas. He has collected and studied fungi for more than three decades, and his research program has taken him to all seven continents and every major type of terrestrial ecosystem. 
 
 

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
For the purpose of this field guide, the Southeast is defined as extending from northern Florida to Maryland and encompassing the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This region includes portions of seven different physiographic provinces in eastern North America. A physiographic province is defined as a geographic region with a characteristic type of landscape and usually a different type of subsurface rock (e.g., sandstone or limestone). Both landscape and subsurface rock contribute to the development of what is often a distinctive type of vegetation.

The Coastal Plain makes up the largest land area of the Southeast, extending from eastern Maryland southward to northern Florida and west to Louisiana. Virtually all of Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as major portions of southern and eastern Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, fall within this province. The Coastal Plain is characterized by a relatively flat landscape and sometimes poorly drained areas. Located west of the Coastal Plain is a second physiographic province, the Piedmont, which extends from eastern Alabama northward through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia to central Maryland. The Piedmont is composed of more rolling hills than the Coastal Plain.

The southern Appalachian Mountains occupy portions of nine states in the Southeast and include three physiographic provinces. The Appalachian Plateau (or Cumberland Plateau, as it is known in Kentucky) occurs from western Maryland to northern Alabama; this dissected tableland is broadest in West Virginia, where it occupies more than half the state. Located just east of the Appalachian Plateau is the Valley and Ridge, which also extends from western Maryland to northern Alabama; this region consists of a series of well-defined alternating ridges and valleys trending from north to south. The Blue Ridge, situated between the Piedmont and the Valley and Ridge, occurs from Maryland to northern Georgia. The highest mountains in the Southeast are part of the Blue Ridge, with numerous peaks reaching elevations of 4,000 feet and several exceeding 5,000 feet in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee.

The Interior Low Plateaus of Kentucky, western Tennessee, and far northern Alabama occur to the west of the Appalachian Mountains and consist of rolling hills. In central and northern Arkansas, the Ouachita-Ozark Highlands province contains two relatively low-elevation mountain ranges (Boston and Ouachita) separated by the broad, flat Arkansas River Valley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

Overview of the Region 8

Southeastern Fungi and Their Role in the Environment 11

Mushroomsn as Medicine, Food, and Nutrition 15

Mushroom Toxins 18

Morphology of Mushrooms 22

What's in a Mushroom Name? 23

Collecting and Studying Mushrooms 24

The Mushrooms 28

Ascomycetes 30

Entomopathogenic Fungi 31

Morels and Relative 42

Cup Fungi 50

Club Fungi 71

Plant Pathogens 86

Truffles 89

Mycoparasites 98

Wood Mounds 108

Basidiomycetes 112

Gilled Mushrooms 114

Boletes and Relatives 248

Coral Fungi and Relatives 273

Polypores and Relatives 289

Crust Fungi, Rusts, and Smuts 328

Puffballs, False Truggles, Earthstars, Stinkhorns, and Bird's Nest Fungi 337

Jelly Fungi 359

Tooth Fungi 366

Slime Molds (Myxomycetes) 375

Glossary 384

Recommended Reading 387

Photo and Illustration Credits 389

Index 390

Editorial Reviews

Southeastern mushroom identifiers will need this book. . . to maximize their chances for success. It offers appropriately detailed, up-to-date coverage in an attractive, conveniently sized, and reasonably priced package. Buying it should be an easy decision for mushroomers in the Southeast.” —The Mycophile

“An engaging field guide to fungal fruiting bodies of the American Southeast. . . . a useful guide for amateurs and professionals alike.” —Choice Magazine ​

"Wonderful… I love any book with a ruler designed into the back cover so you can measure your specimens.” —Quail Ridge Books

“An essential guidebook for mushroom hunting, the perfect social distancing sport.” —The Daily Press

From the Publisher