I was looking for fungi identifier apps to help with my mushroom identifying on iNaturalist, but there were lots of comments about them being dodgy. Does anyone know any reliable apps?
They are all unreliable and should never be trusted; iNaturalist is actually the most accurate one so far but it is far from perfect; best bet for a quick ID is through the various mushroom ID groups on Facebook
3 Likes
Thanks!
other apps, even iNat, might be a decent place to learn about fungi, but I would never trust one to the level of staking my safety on it (such as eating one).
1 Like
Even if there was a perfect app, many fungi are hard to be distinguished visually even with crystal clear photos. Often other information is required, such as substrate, time of year, reaction to KOH, or an examination of spores via microscope. There will never be an app that’s good in fungi ID.
Yeah inat really is the best, honestly. Its pretty good at well-defined species or species groups, and usually will get you in the correct ballpark on big, charismatic species. That said, there’s definitely a popularity bias - in the eastern US for example, if you take a picture of a big white amanita it is going to suggest Amanita bisporigera instead of Amanita suballiacea or Amanita magnilevaris almost every time. But still, correct ballpark.
I would never trust apps for identification of edibles though. Confirm independently and seek out advice from experienced mushroom identifiers for that.
1 Like
Best advice I can give about mushrooms: learn them one at a time.
When experienced foragers go out to do any kind of foraging, they do so armed with existing knowledge, looking for specific, known kinds – be that berries, nuts, fishes, as the case may be.
When you can positively identify a chanterelle, you are ready to forage chanterelles. When you can positively identify a puffball, you are ready to forage puffballs. So it goes with each kind.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.