The best mushroom hunting apps

Autumn is approaching. This is the time of year when mushroom pickers are at their happiest. Our mountains and forests are full of mushrooms just waiting to be picked. But, as you know, caution is essential.

We know it's easy to get lost, and we can also make mistakes when identifying mushrooms. And this confusion can cost us, at best, disappointment, in other cases, more seriously, we can end up in the hospital, and in the most extreme cases, even lose our lives.

Don't forget to go well equipped to the mountains. This year will be full of mushrooms, so a good mushroom basket is a must-have item in your equipment.

Apps for mushroom hunting

We have already talked several times about equipment for mushroom hunting. At this point, any mycology enthusiast knows that they need a wicker basket and a mushroom knife as their main tools.

But we also need to take a cell phone with us. Either to use as a camera or to call for help or report an emergency, giving our location.

Did you know that there are many apps that can be very useful for our hobby?

Our cell phone can help us look for mushrooms

Fortunately, there are various utilities and apps that work via GPS to prevent us from getting lost, and others that help us identify the specimen we have in front of us. Let's take a closer look at the latter, as we have already done with those that help us avoid getting lost or locate ourselves if we do.

Apps that help us identify the mushrooms we find

There are many types of mobile apps that can be useful in the mountains or help us in our passion for mushrooms and fungi. Some of them help us to identify the specimens we collect. Others help us to find our way in the mountains, return to our starting point or to a mushroom we found earlier.

There are tools to make these tasks easier. Compasses, altimeters, flashlights... We can also find weather apps that help us know the weather and rainfall, which is vital for mushrooms to appear.

There are even games and simulators where you can harvest boletus mushrooms without leaving your home!

In this article, we will show you the apps that will help you find and identify mushrooms, and which we think are the most interesting for you to install on your devices. They will surely be very useful on your next field trips.

What are the best mycological apps for mobile devices?

The most useful mobile apps, especially for beginners, are those that give us information on how to distinguish between edible and poisonous or toxic mushrooms. These are the ones that work best, so you can enjoy your mushroom stew with peace of mind.

We're going to review the best ones. We recommend that you install them and try them out for yourself. They all have different features, so some will be more useful to some enthusiasts than others. As the saying goes... “to each their own mushroom.”

Best mycological apps 2023

There are a large number of Android apps that help us search for mushrooms. However, some of them are not of sufficient quality. Either the species they help us identify are rare, or they are not properly detailed, with incorrect information or poor-quality images and, in some cases, images that do not correspond to the species they describe.

Among the best mycology apps for mobile phones in 2018, we can highlight the following:

Boletus

A classic mushroom identification app. With simple graphics and illustrations, the app helps to identify the species we have just located. It then offers us different identification results and a percentage of accuracy.

In line with other mushroom apps, Boletus also includes a map where you can mark the areas where you have found mushrooms so that you can return there in the future.

The list of species in this app is very extensive, but its free version (BOLETUS LITE) only allows you to identify the first two species, so you can try it out and see if it suits you. If it does, you can pay €2.35 for the full version.

Works without an internet connection, so we can use it whenever we want, with or without a connection.

A good app, but you have to pay for it, even if it's only a small amount.

Fungipedia

This app is the official app for the great encyclopedia of mushrooms that we have in our country. It is a very comprehensive database of species that includes the entire database of the Fungipedia website.

You will find a list of the most common edible species, as well as a button for confusing species, which will teach you which are the most dangerous species that they are commonly confused with.

The mushroom management system is one of the best among the apps analyzed and allows you to add new mushroom sites, as well as navigate to sites close to those already marked.

It also includes a car location marking feature and manages the entire image database of this website. In addition, it offers very useful and sensible picking tips

It offers a free version, which provides information on 250 different species of mushrooms and has an extensive image bank. You can install it to see how it works and if you want to buy the full version, €6.99, the most expensive license of those analyzed.

The full version includes 500 species and over 2,000 photographs, allowing you to expand this database with our georeferenced photographs

Once the app is installed, you don't need internet access to use it, so you can enjoy it on your field trips, even without network coverage

Types of mushrooms

This phenomenal app has just been developed by a member of ASMICAS, the Mycological Association of Castellón, which guarantees the application of new nomenclatures for a large number of mushrooms that have recently changed names.

It is one of the most comprehensive and accurate apps available to help us identify species.

This mycological mobile app has been designed by mycology enthusiasts for mycology enthusiasts, so it provides very useful details for identifying species.

To do this, we must follow the steps indicated by the app to answer the questions it asks us and thus arrive at the conclusion proposed by the app. We can search by mushroom genus using dichotomous keys, or through a broader genus index. We will have to answer the questions to gradually eliminate options and thus retain the appropriate species proposed. Once this answer has been obtained, the app takes us back to the native Google Images photo database, where we can view a huge number of images of each species.

As is generally the case with these apps, there is a free basic version and a more comprehensive version called GENRES DE CHAMPIGNONS PRO, which is ad-free and available at an affordable price of $2.99.

A great job by this mushroom enthusiast who will surely continue to improve the app in future versions. Highly recommended!

Boletaires

This app is only available in Catalan. It includes information on the main edible and poisonous boletus mushrooms. The information includes a description, several high-quality images, and images of similar poisonous mushrooms, where applicable.

The strength of this app, in our opinion, is its selection of mushroom recipes, divided into appetizers, first and second courses, and even desserts.

Another strong point is the inclusion of a map where you can geolocate mushroom brands, farm entrances, and more. Finally, it includes a game to test your mycological knowledge.

A good mushroom app. It could perhaps include more mushrooms, but it does include the most common ones. It's a shame that it hasn't been translated so that more mushroom pickers can use it.

Available in a basic version and premium version without advertising for €3.99

Mushroom Course

Although still in development, this mycological app is quite interesting. Due to the increase in mushroom picking areas, Cotos de Setas provides information on each of the registered areas. These may be freely accessible, restricted with the necessary authorization, or affiliated with MICOCYL

It tells us the area of the zone, the exploitation regime, and whether there are any fees or entrance charges to access it.

In addition, it also provides information on the type of mushrooms that can be found in each area, including a brief description of each edible species. It also offers weather information for the area with a forecast for the next 5 days, including temperature, precipitation, and hours of sunshine.

We can also find out the exact route to reach the entry point from our location, as well as our position in each area

In addition, it includes the option to purchase online access permits for each area covered by the program

Mapa de setas is a good app, free of charge, although it is still in the development phase and does not include too much information. However, as an app concept, it is extremely useful and the interface is one of the best. It will be worth keeping an eye on future developments.

You can download this app here

Micocyl

This app, developed by the regulatory body for mycology in Castile and León, does not indicate whether or not you are in a forest regulated by them.

Thanks to GPS positioning, our device informs the app of its exact location. It includes a weather forecast service so you can find out what the weather will be like during your mushroom hunting trip

Among its features, we can mark the location of our vehicle so we can return to it once we have finished picking. It also has an SOS button to send a message to our selected contacts with our location when we find ourselves in an emergency situation.

This app informs us of mycological events to celebrate in the region, places of interest, hotels, and restaurants, as well as allowing us to obtain the necessary picking permit.

A very good app, although it is limited to the mycological areas of Castile and León. Download it from this link

Mushtool

One of the oldest and most comprehensive mushroom picking apps. It is available in major languages, including Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Galician. It offers multiple mycological features for enthusiasts, such as:

A selection of over 100 files on edible, toxic, and poisonous mycological species with high-quality photographs

It offers the possibility of geolocating your finds by marking your collection sites so you can return later. It also allows you to locate restaurants where you can eat dishes made with mushrooms.

In addition, it includes a glossary of mycological terms and a game to test your knowledge of mushrooms.

It even offers recipes where mushrooms are the star ingredient. The price is... A classic app that is among the most comprehensive available.

Available in a free version and a PRO version or full version for $2.39

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Mushroom games for our cell phone

We have already mentioned that some of the apps we have reviewed include a little game to complement their features, but there is one app that is just that, a game based on mushrooms. About mushrooms and going out to look for them, which is what we like best.

We'll give you some pretty fun examples where you can test your mushroom picking skills.

Caçadors de Bolets

In the purest style of Ninja Fruits, the classic and popular game where we cut fruit with our katana, here the challenge is to cut edible mushrooms, only the edible ones, trying to reach the maximum score. Be careful not to cut the dangerous fly agaric mushrooms and prevent any chanterelles, boletes or other edible mushrooms from leaving the screen without being cut into pieces. This fun game will give us a good time cutting virtual mushrooms in the hope of being able to cut real ones.

Download Mushroom Hunters

Real mushroom hunting

With this game, we can go mushroom hunting without leaving home. To do so, we'll wander through the forest in search of porcini and chanterelle mushrooms. We'll move around in first person using our touchscreen. But be careful, it won't all be plain sailing, as there are dangers lurking in the forest. We'll have to flee from bears and wolves, which are also in the forest. A fun game to pass the time while filling our baskets in real life, not just virtually.

Download Real Mushroom Hunting

Mycological apps in continuous development

There are a few other apps, although we have selected those that stand out for certain features, either for the quality of their photographs and species descriptions, the functionality of their maps, or because they include other options. We have not selected any apps for economic reasons, but because we believe they may be useful to mushroom enthusiasts.

There are surely others that we are not aware of, so we invite you to send them to us so that we can analyze them and include them in our selection.

We look forward to your suggestions and comments on our Facebook page.

Cheers and mushrooms! !