this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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Yes, but mushrooms are typically harder to identify than plants are, so AI is surely not very good at it. Even mycologists are only learning in recent years that some mushrooms which they had long believed to be the same species are in fact entirely different species (thanks to genetic testing).
I myself forage for both plants and mushrooms and I practiced identifying mushrooms for years before I would eat anything I found.
I do feel like mushrooms get a bad rep compared to plants -- there are certain mushrooms (in the UK at least) that are very safe to forage. Boletes (if you check for staining and red on the stem), agaricus, hedgehog fungi, blewits, shaggy inkcaps...
Others I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, even if I'm 99% sure. Any of the small white funnels (miller etc.) I'm not interested in, and likewise amanitas I won't go near.
But obviously the point stands that using AI, rather than books or trusted sources, is a non-starter. Always use multiple sources when foraging (message for a general audience).
Death camas and wild onion are not easy to tell apart. Chanterelles and morels can be identified safely and easily by beginners by looking at a few key features. Neither should use an app to ID.
You missed the word "typically". I well know that there are exceptions.
I read it, just don’t agree on the generalization. I think it’s more that there’s a cultural phobia of fungi, and not really that they’re harder to ID safely than plants.