What can smell like bubble gum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants--mushrooms are fungi. They're more closely related to animals like you! Through lyrical text and colorful, detailed artwork, the wonderful, mysterious, and sometimes bizarre world of mushrooms is explored. Back matter includes a glossary, additional mushroom facts, and a science activity.

A new approach to identifying mushrooms based on five key features that can be observed while in the field.

Toadstools, truffles, boletes and morels, witches' butter, conks, corals, puffballs and earthstars: mushrooms are both mysterious and ecologically essential. They can also be either delicious or deadly.

Thousands of different species of mushrooms appear across North America in the woods, backyards, and in unexpected corners. Learning to distinguish them is a rewarding challenge for a naturalist or chef. Covering most of the common edible and poisonous species readers are likely to encounter, this portable-sized field guide takes a new, simple approach to the method of mushroom identification based on key features that do not require a microscope or technical vocabulary.

In addition to the watercolors from the original edition, hundreds more illustrations have been added. These paintings make use of the limited space available in a field guide and focus on the distinguishing details of each species, thereby serving as an ideal tool for beginner and intermediate mycologists alike.

A heartfelt appreciation of the beauty and diversity of fungi. Astounding Mushrooms features gorgeous full-color photographs of more than 200 mushroom species in their wild habitat. The close-up images reveal every size of growth, every shade of color, every shadow of silhouette, and every detail of texture. Chapter text sheds light on this unique living species, neither animal nor plant. Concise captions identify the mushrooms and provide further description of their biology. As Astounding Mushrooms reveals, mushrooms are astonishingly diverse. Shapes include buttons, nests, fans, feet, clubs, hooves, trumpets, mesh, tentacles, stars, tubes, and spines. Textures are smooth, shiny or pimpled. They can be dry or wet, edible or deadly. Nuanced colors and blushes include yellows, reds, blues, and greens. They may be speckled, stinky, slimy, hairy, or fuzzy. Some wear a hat, a skirt, or can even move. Wild mushrooms are enjoyed by an increasing number of locavores, vegans and wild food enthusiasts. Chefs everywhere are foraging wild foods, including mushrooms. Mushroom hunting tours have become popular, and mycolophiles are sharing their enthusiasm and identification tips online. Astounding Mushrooms invites readers into the extraordinary fungi universe.

Join Elise Gravel as she explores the science of some of nature's weirdest and wildest characters—mushrooms! Elise Gravel is back with a whimsical look at one of her family’s most beloved pastimes: mushroom hunting! Combining her love of getting out into nature with her talent for anthropomorphizing everything, Gravel takes us on a magical tour of the forest floor and examines a handful of her favorite alien specimens up close. While the beautiful coral mushroom looks like it belongs under the sea, the peculiar lactarius indigo may be better suited for outer space! From the fun-to-stomp puffballs to the prince of the stinkers—the stinkhorn mushroom—and the musically inclined chanterelles, Gravel shares her knowledge of this fascinating kingdom by bringing each species to life in full felt-tip marker glory. Governor General award winning author Elise Gravel’s first book with Drawn & Quarterly, If Found...Please Return to Elise Gravel, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and instant hit among librarians, parents, and kids alike. Fostering the same spirit of creativity and curiosity, The Mushroom Fan Club promises to inspire kids to look more closely at the world around them and seek out all of life’s little treasures, stinky or not!