Hedström Ellen - The pocket guide to wild mushrooms : helpful tips for mushrooming in the field

Edible Mushrooms are marked with a GREEN circle and a WHITE number.

	Edible mushrooms mushrooms for beginners that can only be confused with other edible mushrooms.
	Edible mushrooms mushrooms for beginners that can be confused with mushrooms unsuitable for consumption for reasons other than being poisonous.
	Edible mushrooms that can be confused with mildly poisonous mushrooms.
	Edible mushrooms that can be confused with dangerously poisonous mushrooms.

Edible mushrooms with certain restrictions are marked with a black ring around the green circle in the following way:

	Edible mushrooms that can only be confused with other edible mushrooms and that must first be blanched in plenty of water (see p. 9495).
	Edible mushrooms that can be confused with mildly poisonous mushrooms and that must first be blanched in plenty of water (see p. 9495).

Inedible mushrooms are marked with a RED or YELLOW square.

	Poisonous Mushrooms (marked in red)
A large proportion of mushrooms contain self-produced toxins that are poisonous. A mushroom containing dangerous levels of these toxins is known as a poisonous mushroom.
Dangerously poisonous mushrooms, especially those containing substances damaging to cells or large amounts of substances damaging to the nervous system, will be marked with a red poison symbol.
	Mushrooms unsuitable for consumption due to reasons other than being poisonous
Most of our larger mushrooms belong to this group. The look-alike mushrooms that are marked in this way in yellow belong to one or more of the following categories:

1. Mushrooms lacking sufficient research.

2. Inedible mushrooms.

3. Worthless mushrooms.

4. Edible but rare mushrooms. (Please note that these are regarded as edible mushrooms in countries where they grow abundantly.)

Helpful Tips for Mushrooming in the Field

Pelle Holmberg Hans Marklund

Translated by Ellen Hedstrm

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2013 by Pelle Holmberg and Hans Marklund

English-language translation copyright 2013 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Originally published as Lilla Svampboken 1999, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 by Pelle Holmberg (words),

Hans Marklund (words, photo, and layout), by Norstedts, Sweden. Published by agreement with Norstedts Agency.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62087-731-9

Cover design: Seth Kapadia; cover photograph Hans Marklund (front cover; above chanterelle, below orange oak bolete, black morel, and yellow foot) and Ingrid Holmberg (authors portrait on the back cover)

Printed in China

Herald of the winter one of late falls delicacies

The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms is a smaller, portable version of our book Nya Svampboken, to be used in the field. The selection of species included is reduced, however it still includes the most important edible mushrooms and of course the most common look-alike mushrooms. Those who would like further information about the mushrooms presented in this book or find some species missing can refer to other resources, listed in the back of the book.

In the first edition of Nya Svampboken (1996), we introduced new symbols for the mushrooms and these can also be found in this book. The symbols are based on each edible mushrooms potential look-alike counterpart. Edible mushrooms in group 1 can only (within reason) be confused with other edible mushrooms. Those in group 2 can be confused with mushrooms that are unsuitable for consumption but that are not poisonous. Group 1 and 2 are what we call beginners mushrooms. Edible mushrooms in group 3 can be confused with slightly poisonous mushrooms, and those in group 4 can be confused with lethally poisonous mushrooms. We consider all mushrooms presented here to taste good, but which taste the best? Well it depends on a lot of factors including how they are prepared, what they accompany, including beverages, and of course personal taste.

Have fun foraging for mushrooms!

All mushrooms presented here are made of mycelium, a network of thin threadlike structures in the ground (see photo on right). The mycelium forms fruiting bodies (see below) that mature and become attractive to mushroom pickers. The fruiting bodies can be compared to the fruit on a tree and have as their biological task to form spores, or reproductive bodies.

The fruiting body of a Parasol Mushroom