Is it safe or not? What gourmands and nature lovers need to know to harvest your own. Advice, with photographs, from an expert

Novices eager to collect tasty wild mushrooms will find this unique guide invaluable. Unlike others, it focuses only on those types that are both safe to eat and delicious. Most importantly, it presents the eight rules of mushroom gathering in a straightforward fashion, including, "Never, never take a mushroom with gills" and "If a mushroom smells rotten, it is rotten."

Among the mushrooms covered are the cep; the red-cracked, larch, bay, and birch boletes; hen of the woods, chanterelle, trumpet chanterelle, hedgehog fungus, common puffball, horn of plenty, and cauliflower mushroom.

Each is identified with several photographs and identification checklist, and there's also information on mushroom season, handling, storage, and cooking, complete with recipes.