Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region

by Vera Stucky Evenson, Denver Botanic Gardens

Overview

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

Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region 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 Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as adjacent areas in Montana and Idaho
• Describes and illustrates 220 species
• More than 500 photographs, with additional keys and diagrams
• Clear color-coded layout

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604695762
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/19/2015
Series:	A Timber Press Field Guide
Pages:	298
Sales rank:	630,936
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Vera Stucky Evenson is the curator of the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi at Denver Botanic Gardens. She collects and studies thousands of specimens and photographs of native mushrooms in many ecosystems, including those that grow in city environments. She served as president of the Colorado Mycological Society, and has received the North American Mycological Association’s Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in botany and bacteriology and a master’s degree in microbiology. 

Green inside and out, Denver Botanic Gardens began in 1951 and is considered one of the top botanical gardens in the United States and a pioneer in water conservation. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Gardens’ living collections encompass specimens from the tropics to the tundra, showcasing a plant palette chosen to thrive in Colorado’s semiarid climate. The Gardens offer world-class art exhibitions, education programs, and important plant conservation and research initiatives. For more information, visit botanicgardens.org.
 

Read an Excerpt

Preface
The word mushroom conjures up a great variety of responses in people’s minds. Some react with a combination of loathing and suspicion reserved for earthy creatures like snakes, worms, and slugs while others with hunter-gatherer instincts immediately think of something good to eat. For most people, the beauty of the colors and the amazing shapes of wild mushrooms appeal to their sense of curiosity and wonder. Both children and adults want to know why mushrooms are growing where they are, how they so mysteriously appear and then suddenly vanish, what role mushrooms play in the grand scheme of the natural world, and how we tell them apart. This book is designed to answer those questions and hundreds more by attempting to satisfy the curious, to inform the novice, and to give pleasure to the artist and nature lover.
    
The stars of these pages are mushrooms found growing wild in Colorado, southern Wyoming, northern New Mexico, and eastern Utah as well as adjacent areas in the nearby states of Montana and Idaho. Because state boundaries mean nothing to a mushroom, many of the mushrooms featured here occur throughout the Rocky Mountain region (or in some cases, all over the world if habitats are similar). For example, mushrooms found near Colorado’s tree line will be similar or identical with those found near Montana’s more northern but lower tree line. Grassland mushrooms are similar throughout the West, in most cases because habitats are comparable. Correspondingly, “city mushrooms” found among Denver’s cultivated gardens will be very similar to those in urban lawns and parks throughout the region.
    
The most complete collection of actively curated, scientific specimens of mushrooms in Colorado and the surrounding region is located at Denver Botanic Gardens’ Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi. More than 1975 species in 440 genera make up the nearly 18,000 dried specimens of fungi presently kept and studied there. Almost all of the mushrooms pictured in this book are voucher specimens preserved at the herbarium and available for future study. However, the extensive collection at the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi does not contain even a fourth of all the kinds of mushrooms and other fungi that could be found in the region. As more mycologists (scientists who study fungi) collect mushrooms in the varied habitats, more and more species new to science will be discovered.
    
Throughout the colorful history of this region, amateur mushroom hunters have asked, “What kind of mushroom is that?” while living or recreating in the woods or mountains or strolling though parks, backyards, and barnyards. Answers to their questions have come from many different sources: older family members, fellow mushroom hunters, university professionals, mushroom clubs, staff at Denver Botanic Gardens, books, newspapers, and more recently on-line resources. Along the way, our knowledge of local mushrooms has grown, thanks to those determined amateurs who took note of intricate details, exclaimed over the colors and shapes, appreciated the variety, and then asked more questions.
    
I wrote this book for the amateur mushroom hunter in the Rocky Mountain region. Use it to guide your hunts, and keep asking the question: “What kind of mushroom is that?”

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Photographs 8

Foreword 11

Preface 12

Acknowledgments 13

Introduction

Mushroom Anatomy and Names 16

How to Use This Book 21

Reproduction and Lifestyles 24

Habitats and Fruiting Times 31

Collecting Mushrooms 41

Have Fungi-But Be Carefull 47

The Mushrooms

True Fungi 64

Ascomycetes 66

Basidiomycetes 92

Amanitas 94

Lepiota and Chlorophyllum 99

Hygrophorus and Relatives 102

Russula and Lactarius 108

Tricholoma, Pleurotus, and Their Allies 122

Pink-spoied, Gilled Mushrooms 160

Cortinarius and Other Brown-spored, Gilled Mushrooms 164

Coprinoid Mushrooms, Panaeolus, and Psathyrdla 179

Stropharia and Allies 189

Bolbitius and Allies 197

Agaricus 199

Family Gomphidiaceae 207

Family Paxillaceae 210

The Boletes 211

Order Aphyllophorales 225

Polypores 238

Gasteroid Fungi 254

Hypogeous Fungi 272

Jelly Fungi 275

Glossary 280

Suggested Reading 286

Photo and Illustration Credits 288

Index 289

About the Authors 298

Editorial Reviews

Inestimable.” —Denver Life

“An interesting and helpful feature is a list of figures and photographs in which the Botanic Gardens’ accession numbers of the photographed collections are given, so an interested party could find the actual material for further study if desired.” —Myko Web
 

From the Publisher