Contribute Observations
to the Fungal Diversity Database
Sign up
- Download the free iNaturalist app for iOS or Android
- Create a free account on either your phone or their website
Create an observation
With iNaturalist (iNat) you have two options for creating observations: using the iNaturalist mobile app, or on the website:
Add your observations to the Fungal Diversity Database
- To begin: Join the iNat project Fungal Diversity Database.
- Now, with each new observation you create there will be an option of Add to Project (it's slightly different on a mobile app or web). Find and add.
- Add high quality observations that meet our minimum quality standards(below).
- If your observation has not yet been identified FunDiS identifiers will ID it, or make other suggestions on how to improve the observation.
- For bulk adding quality observations, click here.
FUNDIS minimum quality standards checklist
- Observations should be of mushrooms large enough to be seen without a microscope, that have been observed in North America (everything north of the Panama Canal). No lichens or slime molds please.
- Images need to be clear, well-lit, in focus, and the mushroom needs to be relatively large in the picture so its details can be seen clearly
- Please no old or heavily damaged specimens.
- We want to see the cap, the pore/gill surface, the stem including the base, bulb or volva (if applicable). Any staining, discoloration or milk/latex should also be shown.
- Unless its size is clear, add a ruler or a common item (eg knife, pen or your hand) for scale
- There should be a clue to the host or substrate, eg if it grows under a specific tree, show the leaf or needles of that tree next to the mushroom, or take a separate picture.
- Anything else that's noteworthy (eg smell, taste) should be added in the Notes section
You could take several pictures of one specimen, or you put a couple of fungi in the same shot where we see different parts of the specimens.
How to Photograph a Mushroom (1 min; by Sigrid jakob)
See more photography and collection tips here.
Questions? inat-admin@fundis.org
(A similar program is planned for Mushroom Observer)
