4 ms·
No respectable micologist would attempt identifying a mushroom based on a picture alone. It's just not possible: there isn't a 1:1 correspondence between specie
by rnhmjoj 4y ago
No respectable micologist would attempt identifying a mushroom based on a picture alone. It's just not possible: there isn't a 1:1 correspondence between species and (macroscopic) appearance, not for every species or even the majority of them.
To be relatively sure on an identification you can combine a good knowledge of the location where the mushroom was found, smell and even taste, but a microscopy (observation of the size, shape and color of the spores, characteristics of the sporophore, hymenium, etc.) is necessary to be certain. In fact, the taxonomy was entirely based on it before genetic analysis started to take over.
You could probably do machine learning and reach a good accuracy based on microscopy, but certainly not with a blurry picture taken from a smartphone.