One mushroom in the woods is delicious, and the one growing beside it can be deadly. This second edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America teaches you to tell them apart by the features you can see for yourself, with no microscope and no technical vocabulary required.

It covers the common edible and poisonous species you are most likely to meet in the woods, the backyard and the most unexpected corners, from morels and boletes to puffballs, corals, conks, earthstars, truffles and witches' butter. The original watercolor plates are joined by hundreds of new illustrations, and the detailed entries help you separate a prized morel from its dangerous look-alikes.

At 4 by 7 inches and 416 pages, it keeps the classic Peterson size that slips into a backpack for the trail. Written by Karl B. McKnight, Joseph R. Rohrer, Kirsten McKnight Ward and Kent H. McKnight, it belongs to the Peterson Field Guides, the series that has set the standard for field guides for more than 85 years.