Fungi Booklet

2,500+ Taiwan fungi with 74,000 photos. On-device Mushroom ID. Rainfall, offline topo maps and trails too.

Fungi Booklet — a field guide to the fungi of Taiwan

From looking a species up at home to getting back down the route you came by, one application covers it. Free, no advertising.

■ 2,518 Taiwanese fungi

941 genera, 312 families, 74,014 photographs from 255 local contributors. Every species carries a full morphological description — cap, gills, stem, ring, volva and base — with size, color, habitat, edibility, look-alikes and a chart of the months it has been recorded in. Keyword, type, habitat, color and size filters may be combined, and every species page opens the matching entry on iNaturalist, MushroomExpert, Mushroom Observer, First Nature and HK-CWW.

■ Identification from a photograph

Photographs are classified on the device, with a similarity score at each rank from phylum down to species; the model is trained principally on species common in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Photographs are never uploaded and no connection is needed. The model is downloaded once on first use (about 140 MB). Where confidence extends only to genus, the result stops at genus rather than proposing a species name.

■ Island-wide rainfall

Observed rainfall, single-day and five-day totals, rain-probability forecasts, radar echo and typhoon rainfall on one map, in the Central Weather Administration's colors. Fungi appear after rain, which makes this the page to consult before setting out.

■ Offline Rudy Map

Downloaded once (386 MB full, 194 MB light), the Taiwan topographic map — contours, hillshading, offline place-name search — works with no connection, and a new release is published each Thursday. "Fully offline mode" stops this source issuing network requests at all.

■ Measurement along the trail

Two points placed on the map snap to the nearest trail; distance, ascent and descent follow that trail, not the straight line between them. Where a section has another way round, both are drawn; loop trails report the full circuit.

■ Trail recording

Recording starts with a single press and continues in the background. GPX, KML and KMZ are supported both ways; waypoints may be marked and photographed along the way. An elevation profile and a trip card follow on completion.

■ Backtracking

Taking the wrong fork on the descent accounts for a significant share of mountain accidents in Taiwan. The app fixes the route walked in as a reference line, vibrates if you stray about 50 m from it, and reports three things: your distance from that line, the distance remaining to the trailhead, and — from your pace on the day — an estimated arrival time set against sunset. Entirely offline.

No voice, no turn-by-turn directions, and no shortcut will ever be proposed, even where a shorter line can be computed. An algorithm cannot read the terrain up there; we guide you back only along the route you already walked.

■ Summits and footprints

Named summits you walk over are recorded automatically, with no check-in required; Taiwan's Top 100 and Small Top 100 carry a badge. The segments you have walked are drawn on the map, against Taiwan's 84,266 km of trails.

■ Where your records are held

The app is fully usable without signing in, and while signed out no data leaves the device. Signing in with Facebook or Apple (iPhone and iPad) synchronizes spots and search history, so that they follow the account to a new device. Trails, footprints, summit records and identification history stay on the device in every version, and are never uploaded.

■ Important

All information in this app is for identification reference only and must not be used to decide whether anything is safe to eat. Even where a species is marked edible or choice, the risks of misidentification and contamination remain. Eating the wrong wild mushroom can be fatal. Always consult a qualified expert.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Taiwan MOI; tile style from Rudy Map (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Photographs under CC BY-NC.