I am very aware of the risks of using app.s for identifications but as someone who year after year fails to identify most of the fungi I find, despite having most of the fungi books going, including the 3 volume Kibby guide and just not having the time to spend huge numbers of hours on it, I thought I'd give one a go. I went for Picture mushroom. I used it then used books to check when I got back and they appear to be correct. I cancelled after my 7 day free trial (it's about £28 pa) however I think I will subscribe to this or another using the id as a starting point but checking in books afterwards. Has anyone else got experience of these or any thoughts on the best one?
You are quite right to be vary cautions about these AI apps, but they are very useful, not to identify what you have but to give you a list of suggestions. You can then go to the literature and check spore print, shape and size, cystidia type etc etc. I have Mushroom Identifier on my phone (using the free one, there is a premium version). It has often given correct answers, not always the first choice, but equally often been way off.
By far the best one I have found I use from laptop, not tried using it in the field.
Danish Fungal Atlas
Use multiple photos of the same mushroom or colony and note down the top 3-4 suggestions from each photo.
Often spot on, but again frequently way off. Eg recently I tried a load of waxcap photos, it got about 80% of the photos correct, probably better than that if including second and further choices. One however, it really couldn't get, but from one of several photos I tried it suggested, way down the list, a species that has a bitter taste. A quick bite and it was indeed bitter, spores checked out too.
These identifiers are a great help but never accept their conclusion unless you know the species and are just using the AI as an aid memoir, or you do all the necessary microscopy to confirm the suggestion(s) made.
