Research Catalog

Title

In the company of mushrooms : a biologist's tale / Elio Schaechter.

Author

Schaechter, Moselio.

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 280 pages : illustrations (some color); 21 cm

Summary

• In a style at once learned and quirky, personal and commanding, Elio Schaechter imparts the fascinating minutiae and the weighty implications of his subject - a primarily microscopic life form that nonetheless accounts for up to two tons of matter for every human on the planet. He shows us how fungi, the great decomposers, recycle most of the world's vegetable matter - from a blade of grass to a strapping tree - and thus prevent us from sinking under ever-accumulating masses of decaying matter.
• With the same expertise and contagious enthusiasm that he brings to the biology of mushrooms, Schaechter conveys the allure of the mushroom hunt. Drawing on his own experience as well as that of seasoned pickers and amateur mycologists, he explains when and where to find mushrooms, how they are cultivated, and how they are used in various cultures. From the delectable to the merely tolerable, from the hallucinogenic to the deadly, a wide variety of mushrooms are covered in this spirited presentation.

Subjects

• Mushrooms
• Edible mushrooms

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-262) and index.

Contents

Prologue: The Hunt -- 1. Mushrooms in Our Midst -- 2. The Life History of the Mushroom -- 3. Umbrellas and Other Variations -- 4. A Foray in the Woods -- 5. A Walk on the Lawn -- 6. Mushroomers United -- 7. A Matter of Taste -- 8. White Buttons, Shiitake, and Other Tamed Species -- 9. Truffles, Stinkhorns, and Corn Smut -- 10. Mushrooms, the Mind, and the Body -- 11. Murder and More Mushroom Mayhem -- 12. The Train Wrecker and Other Sturdy Mushrooms -- 13. Insects as Fungus Gardeners -- Epilogue: The Biologist as Mushroom Hunter.

ISBN

0674445546 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

96029568

OCLC

• 35750357
• ocm35750357

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries