Archives: Book Reviews

In “The Mushroom Hunters,” Seattle author Langdon Cook asks what professional foragers get for their efforts: “An itinerant life on the road, continually moving with the seasons? A low hourly wage and no chance for health insurance? A garden variety of potential wilderness pitfalls, including injury, exposure, even wild animals?”

The answer is: all of the above, but that doesn’t stop this from being a very big business. The collectors, those who buy from collectors, the distributors, and even the celebrity chefs who are at the top of this commercial food chain weave in and out of these pages much like in a high-energy, first-person novel. The settings, from the Yukon to California are evocative, too, but mostly somewhat vague–the secret locations of valuable hunting grounds are not to be shared.

This is Cook’s second book on foraging. The Miller Library also has “Fat of the Land” from 2009. In addition to mushrooms, this book highlights the collection practices for fiddlehead ferns, dandelions, huckleberries, and a selection of animals including clams, crabs, and various fish. Several recipes will set your mouth watering.

Melany Vorass Herrera is an enthusiastic and experienced forager who lives in Seattle. In “The Front Yard Forager” she identifies 30 common weeds found in North American cities that she recommends we add to our regular diet. I found her presentations, including recipes, beguiling–especially as my own garden is filled with several of her selections that until now I’ve tossed into yard waste.

Before heading to the garden or the vacant lot, however, the author has several cautionary topics to consider to keep you–the foraging consumer–safe and to ensure your collecting doesn’t disrupt the ecology or social harmony of the neighborhood. Further caveats fill each plant entry, including “Poisonous Look-Alikes” and “Who Should Avoid It” warnings.

While most of the selections, such as dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), have general consensus in the literature as safe to eat, some of Vorass Herrera’s other choices are less certain. This makes as a good companion book the new edition of “The North American Guide to Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms” by two University of Victoria authors, Nancy J. Turner and Patrick von Aderkas.

The wild sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius) illustrates the value of consulting at least these two sources before consuming any wild plant. Vorass Herrera recommends it when identification is certain and when eaten only in moderation. Turner and von Aderkas state that “all species of Lathyrus should be regarded with caution. However, a strong case is made for the edible qualities of wild sweet pea (L. latifolius) by wild food expert John Kallas.” A discussion of the arguments by Kallas follows, leaving you–the now well-informed forager–with three distinct opinions on the safety of putting this plant on your dinner table.

The importance of this is best summed up by Vorass Herrera: “The bottom line? A good forager needs to be willing to spend a little time digging for accurate information.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2014 Arboretum Bulletin.

James Eckenwalder graduated from Reed College in Portland, making him a one-time Pacific Northwest resident, although he is now on the faculty at the University of Toronto. “Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference” is an ambitious effort that was years in the making. It is an excellent reference book in a single volume.

Tropical species are given equal treatment to temperate and the A-Z presentation emphasizes descriptive text–there are only a few photos and those are mostly in black and white. The introduction includes a very readable discussion of taxonomy; the author is clearly captivated by the subject but is able to make his points in terms for a general audience. “My overriding motivation behind all of these considerations, however, is to share my fascination and enthusiasm for these wonderful plants.”

It is a nice balance that a publication of equal stature to the RHS encyclopedia on cultivated conifers has been recently published on conifers in the wild. “Conifers around the World” authors Zsolt Debreczy and István Rácz have been working together since 1975. The predecessor to this current title was published in 2000 in their native Hungarian; Kathy Musial of the Huntington Botanical Gardens provides valuable editing skills to this much expanded English edition.

The result is massive (again, in two volumes), but very manageable. The authors’ intention is to “present photographs of conifers in their natural habitats in a consistent format.” These larger images are breathtaking, and are supplemented with close-up photos of cones, leaves, and any distinguishing features. The accompanying text is concise but unlike some botanical descriptions is very readable and reflects the authors’ sensitivity to conservation, local culture and ethnobotany.

The focus is on temperate species, and the layout is by broad geographical areas with a detailed description of the geological, vegetative, climatic and human history of each. Maps are used liberally to show topography, sites of major conifer forests, floristic provinces, and the ranges of species. The extensive introduction is a joy to read despite covering some pretty dense subjects, including taxonomy, conifer identification, morphology (lots of drawings help the reader with these), and the history of the earth’s climate and other factors that have impacted the distribution of conifers we find today.

The appendix is also fun, with various essays that didn’t quite fit elsewhere, and a “bark gallery” giving eye level close-ups. The Pacific Northwest is clearly dear to these Europeans, as the two photos that accompany the Preface are from Washington State, including the authors’ portrait standing in front of a giant Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) in Olympic National Park. On the inside of the back cover of Volume 2 is the “Sell the Land?” speech attributed to Chief Sealth; a suitable closure to this very rigorous but also very passionate and personal publication.

A Handbook of the World’s Conifers, by Aljos Farjon, was published in 2010 and is described by the author as “not a monograph purely for taxonomists. Its content aims at a much wider audience.” This is accomplished in part by discussing the ecology, conservation, and uses of all species along with the etymology of the botanical name and vernacular names in local languages. Calling this a handbook diminishes its stature; this is a set of two hefty volumes with entries more typical of an encyclopaedia.

It includes all tropical species (about 200, which accounts for nearly one-third of all known conifers in the world) and an emphasis on description including–despite the author’s stated intentions–extensive taxonomic notes. The images and illustrations that are included are of good quality, but are comparatively few and collected on photo pages separated from the related text.

The introduction to “Handbook” is relatively brief, but that’s because Farjon regards his 2008 publication, “A Natural History of Conifers,” as the real introduction. This is a book to be read cover-to-cover, and is a selection of essays on subjects “sometimes communicated at the coffee table in the staff room of your institute, but that would not have been allowed through by the editor of a scientific journal.” This suggests light reading, and the author does show a flair for storytelling, but he also chooses pretty meaty subjects. If you are confused by cladistics, phylogenetic relationships, and other concepts of modern taxonomy and systematics, these terms are explained in language that a lay reader can–with a bit of work–understand.

Excerpted from the Winter 2014 Arboretum Bulletin.