How to enagage in Mission: Urban Mushrooms?
How to get started?
- Sign up for iNaturalist on the app or website (www.inaturalist.org) and join the FunDive project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mission-urbanmushrooms
- If available, remember to join your country’s local iNaturalist network.
- Explore the city and take photos of the mushrooms around you. Turn on your GPS to automatically record the date and location and upload your photos to iNaturalist.
- Need more help? Visit https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support
What to do?
- Make sure the photographs are in focus and well lit, but avoid using flash.
- Think about making the mushroom relatively large in the photograph so that the details can be seen clearly.
- Use an object for scale, for example a dark coin.
- Capture all relevant morphological features of the mushroom, such as the cap and its underside (surface of the pores/gills), and the stem, including the base.
- Document any color changes or exudation after cutting.
- Show the mushroom in situ and include its host or substrate (for example, if it grows under a specific tree, show the leaf or needles of that tree next to the mushroom, or take a separate photograph).
- Photograph the spores if you come across a deposit on leaves or other mushrooms.
- Add details that cannot be captured in the photographs to the notes section, such as any distinctive odor, taste or texture.
Want to go the extra mile?
- Join the conversation on urban mushrooms with other mushroom fans across Europe using the comments on iNaturalist.
- Quick hot air dry your find and store it in a small hermetic plastig bag. We might ask you to send it for DNA sequencing!