So my Seek by a naturalist app identified these as the delicious looking “velvet foot“ edible mushrooms. Fortunately, the next thing I did was check for look-alikes. Can anyone see why that would’ve been really, really bad if I didn’t check?!?!?
(And yes, the app screams at you not to eat mushrooms in the wild, but think about how often we all ignore pop-ups without a glance!)
by Chiknkoop
4 Comments
Yeah these apps aren’t perfect nor should we trust them to be. iPhone Plant ID is similar and has a wide spectrum of reliability. Good to know the poisonous varieties and look-alikes. It doesn’t recognize baneberry super well either 😬
The lookalike I found was [Galerina marginata](https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/124-galerina-marginata/)
ID apps are a great starting point, but you should always confirm with other sources.
People who will eat a mushroom because an app says it’s okay are people with a poor sense of self-preservation. Like people who walk out into the street without looking both ways, people who ride bicycles without a helmet, people who fall for fake check scams. These people are bound to hurt themselves eventually and they really can’t be helped.
Poisonous jack o lanterns