Cowboy's handkerchief (Hygrophorus eburneus) along the UAF Trail System. I've been out shooting fungi a bit over the last couple of weeks. Check out some of the photos from Saturday in my latest Field Notes: https://lwpetersen.substack.com/p/barely-taller-than-the-moss
mushrooms
Tiny mushroom down in the duff. New blog post: https://wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2026/09/slow-start-of-mushroom-season.html #VancouverIsland #Mushrooms #Fungi #NaturePhotography
I have what I think is a good example of how useless ‘AI’ is for understanding. I am tagging widely. I searched “how to identify mushrooms” on DuckDuckGo, which then so helpfully spammed my screen with this lovely advice (see image with alt text). The source of much of my knowledge is mushroomexpert.com, managed by Michael Kuo.
“A mushroom is identified by its characteristics”. I could get semantic here too about the definition of a mushroom, but talk about a pretty useless statement. Fine though. That’s well enough and good if you want an explanation that is super entry level. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though I don’t remember telling the ‘AI’ that I wanted only entry level information.
Then it talks about the danger in attempting to ID mushrooms because of the potential for poisoning. It tacitly assumes that my wanting to ID a mushroom means I want to eat it. I don’t. I just like mushrooms. I have a problem with the whole ‘some are poisonous’ throw-in, like its something their lawyers required them to include. How many are poisonous? 90%? 5%? We have no idea, and that’s OK. I didn’t tell the ‘AI’ that I wanted information on whether or not they were poisonous. But, as I’ll get to, the fact that this is included is not my problem. My problem is what they don’t include.
I think mushrooms are awesome. I think the fact that some of them are poisonous is relevant only based on the human-centric assumptions ‘AI’ is so obsessed with and what it’s dataset is built on. I don’t see the value in a mushroom based on whether or not I can eat it, and it chaffs me that they don’t also include any information about their ecological roles. You know what is a great way to identify a mushroom (including if I want to eat it)?!?!?! Their ecology (essentially, their ‘behavior’)!!! Let’s be sure to not mention that, #TechBros.
Ok let’s keep going, cause we’ve made it this far. It suggests talking to a #mycologist. It turns out that I don’t have any experienced mycologists on call. Mycologists are helpful but busy people. And I’m more likely than most of the population to know mycologists. You might as well say, ‘don’t bother trying to ID the mushroom’. Way to kill my interest immediately in something I’m trying to get into. If you really want to learn to ID mushrooms for foraging, there are sources you can look up to help you.
I’ll get to my main point. Identification of certain mushroom forming fungi to species is essentially impossible. Look up Amanitas or Russulas on mushroomexpert.com (phenomenal source, old school blogging). There is no clear delineating of what a mushroom forming species even is. Scientists argue over and reclassify bird subspecies all the time. Imagine the black box that is mushroom forming fungi, which most of the time is a web of single-cell wide threads hidden in the soil. Some mushrooms historically were ‘IDed’ (scientifically) by taste or color, which as you all know everyone experiences these things the same, all the time. And, darnit, I happened to leave my DNA sequencing kit at home (as if there aren’t issues with classifying mushroom forming fungi on their DNA alone).
If ‘AI’ were functional, to me, it would include the suggestion that one option is, instead of focusing on species, focus on species groupings (this also applies to foraging for mushrooms if done thoughtfully). Species groupings can be more useful, as is sometimes saying: “I don’t need to know exactly what this is. I’ll just focus on it’s ecology instead of obsessing over an arbitrary definition”. This nuance is not something that can be corrected with better algorithms or more training data (in fact, its going to get worse), because #LLM s are designed to spit out the lowest common denominator.
In the end, given all the questions I brought up, the biggest problems I have with ‘AI’ is that it falsely assumes something gigantic about the question I am asking and gives a simplified and highly misleading perception of how much we actually know. I think it makes a big mistake assuming that I am uncurious and want a bare-minimum answer. And when it comes to the grand total of all there is to know about mushroom forming fungi, we know next to nothing. Of course, 'AI' cannot say that because 'AI' doesn't know what it doesn't know.
You know who can identify and communicate all of these nuances? Humans.
#nature #mushrooms #fungi #AI #technology #artificialIntelligence #ecology #solarPunk #EcologicalReciprocity
I should go to jail for these
These will be free stickers if you pledge for my Meowshrooms pin campaign!
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/doombloomart/meowshrooms-silly-little-mushroom-cats
Some cute mushrooms I saw today at Lynn Canyon Park
#mushrooms #mushtodon
Taking time away from the computer over mushroom season in the uk. Just some lil mushies I found, in the UK (and in Japan).. #mushrooms #mushroomspotting
Like something you’d see in the pastry case.
Varnished Polypore, Hemlock Reishi
[Ganoderma tsugae]
I have a mushroom-obsessed friend who got me growing pink oysters in plastic buckets this summer. I decided to make her a mini mushroom pot out of clay and this is how it turned out. I put my hand in the pic so you could sense the scale.
You basically mix a neutral substrate like straw with mushroom spawn, wet it, and the #mushrooms eventually sprout through the small holes. I can’t wait to see this little pot with mushrooms sprouting all over it.
Wow! The first flush of Shiitakes after a couple days of heavy rain for the innoculated logs I left in the center of the driveway!
I’ve found that the first flush are often larger than subsequent fruitings.
Edited 83d ago
I picked up this twig with a mushroom growing on it today, and some guy coming along the trail said, "That is awesome! Is there a smaller one next to it, too?" I looked closer and saw the smaller one. I hadn't noticed it in my own hand, and this guy had spotted it from 3-4 meters away. He must be a good hiking companion. Second photo for scale with a bit of my finger.
#mushrooms #mushtodon
Glad to be home again; I missed my #moss and #mushrooms. Spotted a very neat #pinecone today as well as a rather colorful shelf #fungi.
Love where I live. Vegas was way too dry. Stay curious, friends.
