Mycology beginner guide

A short guide for beginner mycology enthusiasts, mainly from central Europe. Always open for recommendations!

Getting a good local mushroom id guide is a must.

Recommended book guides for Europe:

• Fungi of Temperate Europe
• Ottov veľký atlas: Huby (Czechoslovak)
• Ottova encyklopédia húb (Czechoslovak)
• Přehled hub střední Evropy (Czechoslovak)

Recommended web guide for Czechoslovak context:

• nahuby.sk
• mykologie.net

If you want to use your smartphone for identification, I personally recommend using iNaturalist app – but never trust it 100%, always verify the results it suggests with proper ID guide.

⚠️ Start here → Radical Mycology Webinar 1: Seeing Fungi + Radical Mycology Webinar 2: Working With Fungi

Watching 🎬

• Learn your land (foraging & medicinal mushrooms)
• Old Man of the Woods (foraging)

Reading 📖

• Peter McCoy – Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi
• Paul Stamets – Mycelium running

• 1000x magnification is necessary for observing spores and cystidia (key features for id)
• good and quality lens can be sourced second hand on eBay – “plan” type has the least distortion

• Alan Rockefeller: Fungal Microscopy (video)
• Mushroom Microscopy
• Cheap DIY microscopes