Book reviews

It took a long time to produce, but eventually early in 2001 the first part of this extensive compendium of macromycetes appeared. It is the result of decades of work by the author, who is known as a passionate mushroom collector and painter. Ludwig has the special gift that he is able to record the beauty and diagnostic characters of a mushroom in an unique way. The first volume consists of a large-sized part, 34 x 24 cm, with the icons, and a normal sized text volume. The iconography contains 188 plates with a rather randomly obtained selection of the so-called ‘smaller’ genera of Agaricales, Boletales, and Polyporales, viz.: Agrocybe, Armillaria, Arrhenia, Baeospora, Bolbitius, Callistosporium, Calocybe, Campanella, Catathelasma, Chaetocalathus, Chamaemyces, Cheimenophyllum, Clitocybula, Clitopilus, Crepidotus, Crinipellis, Cystoderma, Cystolepiota, Delicatula, Dennisiomyces, Dermoloma, Faerberia, Fayodia, Flammulaster, Flammulina, Galeropsis, Gamundia, Gastrocybe, Gomphidius, Gymnopilus, Hohenbuehelia, Hydropus, Hygrophoropsis, Hypholoma, Laccaria, Lentinellus, Lentinula, Lentinus, Lepista, Leucopaxillus, Limacella, Lyophyllum (incl. Tephrocybe), Macrocystidia, Marasmiellus, Marasmius, Melanomphalia, Melanophyllum, Mycenella, Mythiomyces, Myxomphalia, Naucoria, Nyctalis, Omphalina, Omphalotus, Oudemansiella, Ossicaulis, Panaeolus, Panellus, Paxillus, Phaeocollybia, Phaeolepiota, Phaeomarasmius, Pholiota, Phyllotopsis, Pleurocybella, Pleuroflammula, Pleurotus, Pseudobaeospora, Pseudoclitocybe, Psilocybe, Resupinatus, Rhodocybe, Rhodotus, Rickenella, Ripartites, Rozites, Schizophyllum, Simocybe, Squamanita, Stagnicola, Strobilurus, Stropharia, Tricholomopsis, Tubaria, Volvariella, Xeromphalina, and Xerula. Ludwig depicted almost all known European species of each genus, which makes this compendium remarkably complete. In addition many species have been depicted several times from various localities, in order to get a good impression of infraspecific variability. This alone makes this a unique publication. A few examples are (number of collections depicted in brackets) Agrocybe praecox (4), Cystolepiota hetieri (3), Gymnopilus penetrans (6), Laccaria proxima (5), Lepista panaeolus (4), Lyophyllum tylicolor (5), Naucoria melinoides, (4), Omphalina obscurata (4) and finally Panaeolus olivaceus (8!).