What every mushroom hunter should carry: a phone can prevent getting lost and help identify fungi

For mushroom hunters, a phone can be nearly as useful as a good knife or a large basket. It can help users find their way through the forest, mark where they left a car, record places they have visited and save promising mushroom spots.

Jonas Puodzius, head of equipment at Telia, advises downloading maps for offline use and checking that the phone has enough battery before leaving. GPS does not require an internet connection, so a downloaded map can still show a user’s location where mobile coverage is weak or absent. Google Maps, however, does not support pedestrian navigation offline, with offline routes available only for car travel.

Puodzius also recommends keeping a personal forest diary. Mushroom hunters can save coordinates, photograph the surroundings and note which species they found. Those records may prove more useful next season than trying to remember which tree stood beside last year’s full basket of porcini.

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When mushroom hunting, we often want to go deeper into the forest, which means phone navigation can become no less important than the basket itself.

A smartphone camera can also help identify mushrooms. Apps such as Picture Mushroom, iNaturalist and ShroomID use image recognition or artificial intelligence to suggest likely species and provide information about similar varieties, edibility and toxicity. iNaturalist also allows users to receive comments and corrections from other enthusiasts and experts.

The article notes that some phone functions depend on network quality. Telia says its mobile network covers most of Lithuania, including many wooded and remote locations. A base station operating in Labanoras Forest can provide 5G speeds above 300 Mbps, allowing users to browse online, make video calls and share finds in real time.

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The mushroom hunter’s phone should contain not only navigation, but also a kind of personal forest diary.