Weather only a mushroom lover could love

(Click the photos to see a larger image of the Myco Pro app that you can read.)

The very best mushroom ID app

The weather hasn’t permitted foraging in the woods, and our handyman hasn’t shown up yet. So I’ve been entertaining myself immersed in my favorite mushroom app. So far I’ve been able to get up to 256 points on the quiz before losing the 3 lives the app allows. It seems rather unfair because sometimes when you correctly identify a lethal mushroom, you get

From the Myco Pro library

a point for correct identification, but sometimes lose a life anyway! However, it is a reminder that if you aren’t very careful foraging mushrooms you could die — just like that! On the positive side, the quiz repeats mushrooms you have correctly identified as well as the ones you misidentified. The repetition really helps fix the mushroom in your mind.

You can also save photos and GPS locations where you’ve found mushrooms so you can find them again.

Each mushroom description has photos that you can click on to see beautiful, zoomable high resolution images.

Can you tell I am crazy about the Myco Pro app? I have downloaded or bought every mushroom app available on Amazon and Google’s play store — and I have uninstalled all but 3. But Myco Pro is far and away the very best! If you want to use the app to full advantage, you really need to know the main characteristics of the most common genera. For that there is no better book to introduce beginners (and intermediates) to the

One of (usually 3) photos for each mushroom.

safest and tastiest mushrooms than David Fischer and Alan Bessette’s book, Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America. Get the book — not the e-book. The e-book is riddled with typos and has tiny, low resolution images. The hard copy is truly superb. It’s

Another view of the same mushroom

impossible to poison yourself if you follow the excellent key points for identification that precedes each mushroom description.  Most importantly, it shows you how to take a spore print, which is a critical first step in identifying mushrooms.

A third photo of the same mushroom.

Totally off-topic, I am doing this post on my phone because the touchpad on my new netbook died. 😦

Anyway, after all this rain, I’m heading to the woods hoping to find lots of mushrooms to photograph  — and hopefully some that are good to eat!

Obligatory disclaimer: I get no financial or any other kind of consideration for these endorsements, although, admittedly, I sound like a commercial!  😀

It even lets you know what taste and texture to expect when you cook the mushroom.