Mushroom Botanical Art

Mushroom Botanical Art is a collection of reproductions of historical botanical prints of mushrooms and other fungi. Originally published in Japanese in 2012, this English language edition is due out 2nd Nov 2021 from Media Do International. It's 208 pages and will be available in ebook format (earlier editions are available in other formats).

This book is full of antique reproduction hand tinted botanical prints with samples of many different species of fungi, showing them in different forms, life stages, and settings. The whole has a retro antique feel, and the page margin decorations, small chapter headings, and fonts used all enhance the overall antique feel. 

The chapters are selected from different historical books of mycology from the 18th - 20th centuries and from several disparate geographical areas in Asia, Europe, and the New World. The pictures are drawn from 11 collections and the style of the artist/naturalists and original media varied widely. I was fascinated by how varied the representations of the same species, Amanita muscaria for example, could be whilst still being perfectly recognizable. The reproduction text is still in the original languages (German, Japanese, Italian, French, etc).

It's a fascinating book of history with beautiful illustrations. I would not recommend it as a field guide, but as an interesting book full of fungi, it's wonderful. This would make a nice selection for public library acquisition, for gardeners, gardening groups, smallholders, and lovers of botanical art.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.