Love picking mushrooms, but don't know much about them? Programmers, administrators of amateur forums and sites, and simply caring people are already trying to solve this problem. Today, there are many ways to identify mushrooms from a photo. Let's find out how you can do this, and how safe such methods are.
Smartphone apps
A huge number of people gather mushrooms out of pure passion, but not many dare to prepare their finds. This is right, because there are very few people who really understand them, and you can’t expect pleasant things from food poisoning.
Developers of programs for smartphones decided to improve the situation and help the townsfolk in a difficult task. There are dozens of mushroom identification apps available on Google Play or the App Store. Many of them work like an ordinary reference book, which contains a catalog with images and descriptions of hundreds of types of mushrooms with a list of all their features and even cooking recipes. Others requireuploading a photo of an object of interest in order to compare it with the base. The most popular programs are:
- Myco - Mushroom Guide;
- "Mushroom Picker's Handbook";
- "Mushrooms: The Big Encyclopedia".
Really innovative are applications based on artificial neural networks. Unlike other programs, they are able to learn, which means that it is assumed that the definition of mushrooms in this way will be more qualitative and accurate. The first of these applications was Mushroom, but today it has many imitators. All programs work online, and in order to recognize the mushroom, you need to connect to the Internet, and then point the screen at it.
Thematic forums and sites
For those who don't like using apps, there are other ways to identify mushrooms. There are many catalog sites that detail all the known information about poisonous, inedible and edible species, give advice on where and in what period they can be found. It is better to familiarize yourself with them before going into the forest in order to know in advance what to look for.
If the mushrooms have already been collected, but there are doubts about their suitability, it is always better to go to the thematic forum. The most inveterate "hunters" are sitting there, who are happy to share their knowledge and answer all questions regarding their favorite hobby.
There is also a specialized Wikigrib site where you can download existing images of the mushroom, and commentators will definitely write if they recognize it. For independent searchanswers there is a resource Gribnikoff. In order to use it to determine the type of fungus, you must enter its key features in the provided boxes next to the questions. To do this, you will have to carefully look at your find and analyze the shape of the hat, the thickness of the stem and other important features.
Disadvantages of identifying mushrooms from photographs
Applications, special programs and guides-catalogues are designed to help beginners better navigate mushrooms, get acquainted with their main distinguishing characteristics. But you also need to be very careful with them.
Firstly, the database often contains far from the entire list of known mushrooms. Some of them are simply not listed in the catalog. Secondly, the image you take may be fuzzy or have the wrong angle, which will distort the result. Thirdly, the definition of mushrooms by appearance is just one of the ways to recognize them, which does not always work. Sometimes this requires additional information, such as skin moisture, odor, or surface roughness.
What to look out for?
Many people have some idea of what a porcini mushroom, veshanka or butter dish looks like. But in "quiet hunting" accurate knowledge is important, not guesswork.
When determining a mushroom, it is important to consider all its features. First of all, it is important to pay attention to:
- The shape of the hat. She can be flatspherical, convex, funnel-shaped, conical, as well as symmetrical or not.
- The shape of the legs. It can be thick or thin, long or short, cylindrical, curved, narrowed or expanded downwards.
- Smell. A number of mushrooms have a characteristic flavor. For example, forest champignon smells of almonds or anise, butterflies - fruits, apples.
- Color of pulp, caps, legs.
- Dryness or dampness of the mushroom surface.
- Hymenophore - the area under the hat. In edible species, it most often looks like a porous sponge, and in false species it consists of plates. But it also happens the other way around, for example, with russula.
- Growth area. Each species has its own "favorite corners", for example, certain trees, clearings, stumps. In addition, near a road or an industrial area, mushrooms will definitely absorb dirt, and it is better not to pick them in questionable places.
Trust but verify
Each mushroom has its own distinctive characteristics by which it can be recognized. But you should not unconditionally trust sites and applications, because experience is the most useful in this matter. Some poisonous or inedible species are skillfully disguised as edible ones, and only an experienced mushroom picker will be able to distinguish them. That is why it is better for amateurs to go in search of mushrooms with someone who is familiar with them.
