Building an AI Mushroom Identifier as a Forager

I’ve always loved mushroom foraging, but one of the biggest challenges is telling species apart in the field. Books and guides are great, but they’re slow to use when you’re standing in the woods trying to compare details. That’s why I started building [Mushroom Identification](https://mushroomidentification.online), a simple web app that uses AI to assist with mushroom ID.

It’s not a replacement for field expertise, but rather an educational tool. You can upload photos from different angles — cap, gills, stem — and in just a few seconds get a detailed overview that includes toxicity warnings, similar species alerts, and regional emergency contacts. The goal is to combine AI’s world knowledge and image recognition with real-world observations, making mushroom identification faster and more accessible for enthusiasts like me.

This project started as a personal tool to help me keep track of species I encountered, and it’s slowly grown into something I wanted to share. If you’re into mushroom ID, I’d love your feedback on how it works and what could make it more useful.