A fascinating exploration of the USDA’s national fungus collection, offering readers an intimate portrait of America’s elusive fungi species.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Fungus Collections is one of the world’s largest mycological institutions, housing over a million species of fungi. Mycologist Maurice Burke Walters’s collection of fungi is also housed here—a fascinating collection revealing the often-solitary forays of the rather-retiring Walters, the then-nascent science of mycology, and the evolving interest of the USDA in documenting the nation’s fungi species (over 10,000 named species are found in the US). Alongside beautiful botanical illustrations, are field notes, observational sketches, and occasionally enigmatic photographs of fungi (within USDA laboratories, in the wild, and elsewhere). 

This book contains an eclectic assortment of illustrated and documented fungi species drawn from Walters collection. Encompassing contemporary meditations on ecology, mycology and pharmacology, the still-unexplored landscape of fungi knowledge is memorably demystified, perhaps, for practicing mycologists and enthusiastic foragers alike.