Documenting Fungi and Using Montana Identification References
How to photograph and record fungi on the Montana prairie, use Montana Field Guide PDF tools, read observation charts and judge mushroom ID apps.
Contents
The short answer
A useful fungus record combines two things. The first is photographs of the cap, the underside (gills on many mushrooms), the stem and the base. The second is notes on the date, the location, what the fungus is growing on, the surrounding vegetation, and whether it appears singly, in pairs or in clusters. Montana State University's mushroom identification guide treats these features and context details as the important ones, and it is available as a printable PDF. The Montana Field Guide's fungi section lets you build your own PDF from species shown on a page or within a taxonomic group. Its monthly observation charts show when observations were recorded, which is not the same as when you can expect to find a species.
What a photograph of a mushroom actually documents
A mushroom is the spore-producing fruiting structure of a fungus. It is not the whole organism, and not all fungi produce mushrooms. A photograph therefore records one visible stage at one moment. If you see no mushrooms at a site, that does not mean fungi are absent. If you see one kind of fruiting body, that does not tell you everything growing in the soil or wood beneath it.
Features to capture in photographs
- Cap: photograph it from above and from the side so both its outline and profile are visible.
- Underside: photograph the gills, or whatever other surface is present beneath the cap.
- Stem: photograph its full length where you can see it.
- Base: photograph where the stem meets the ground or substrate.
- Setting: take one wider shot showing the fungus in place with its surroundings and growth pattern.
Photograph only what you can see without moving, picking or handling the fungus. If the base is buried or the underside is hidden, write "not visible" for that feature instead of guessing. An honest gap is more useful than a guess, because a concealed feature such as the base may be exactly what separates two similar fungi.
Habitat and context notes
- Date of the observation.
- Location, as precisely as you can record it.
- Substrate: what the fungus is growing on or from, such as soil, wood or plant debris.
- Nearby trees or other vegetation.
- Growth pattern: single, in a pair, or clustered.
On open prairie, such as the grasslands around Medicine Lake, the "nearby trees" field may have nothing to record. Note "no trees nearby" instead of leaving it blank. Then list the surrounding grasses, shrubs or wetland-edge plants, so someone reading the record later can see what the habitat actually was.
Illustrative observation worksheet
The template below is an original example layout, not a form issued by any Montana agency. You can copy it into a notebook or spreadsheet and adapt it.
Record ID:
Date:
Location:
Substrate:
Nearby trees / vegetation:
Growth pattern (single / paired / clustered):
Cap: [described] [not visible]
Underside: [described] [not visible]
Stem: [described] [not visible]
Base: [described] [not visible]
Image filenames:
Provisional identification:
Reference consulted (title, edition or app version):
Notes:Using Montana Field Guide fungi pages and PDF tools
The Montana Field Guide's fungi kingdom pages include PDF tools. These can produce a document of the species shown on a page or within a chosen taxonomic level. A PDF Creator linked to Advanced Search lets you compile a custom set of entries for field use. These tools assemble a reference from entries that already exist in the guide; they are not a complete inventory of Montana fungi. A species missing from your PDF is therefore not evidence that it doesn't occur in the state.
Montana State University's guide also lists printed Rocky Mountain mushroom references. Before relying on any book for a prairie observation, check its geographic coverage and publication date. The guide also notes that fungal species concepts are still being refined, so names and groupings can differ between older and newer sources. Record which reference you used, so a later reader knows which naming system your provisional identification follows.
Reading a monthly observation chart
- 1. Identify the taxon the chart covers.
- 2. Check the geographic area the chart was built from.
- 3. Note the date range of the records.
- 4. Read the footnotes for exclusions. Montana Field Guide charts leave out observations that span more than one month.
- 5. Find the total number of records before you interpret any single bar.
Example: one Montana Field Guide monthly chart in the fungi section shows a single June observation, zero in every other month, and a total of one. That means one dated observation was recorded in June. It does not show that the fungus fruits only in June, or that it reliably appears then. Keep a statewide reference entry like this separate from your own local records. A chart summarizes submitted observations, and your worksheet documents what you saw at one place on one day.
Evaluating a mushroom identification app or other aid
Free and paid mushroom identification apps, printed keys and online guides all differ in what they cover and what they ask you to provide. Compare them on documented facts, not on reputation. Take feature and cost details only from each app's own documentation, and leave a field empty when that documentation doesn't answer it.
| Criterion | What to check |
| Geographic coverage | Whether the aid covers Montana or the northern Great Plains, or only another region |
| Author or maintainer | Who built and maintains the species content |
| Publication or update date | How recently the names and entries were revised |
| Taxonomic scope | Whether it covers only mushrooms or other fungi as well |
| Required views | Which photos it asks for (cap, underside, stem, base, setting) |
| Documented features | What the aid states it can and cannot do |
| Documented price | Cost as stated by the developer, including whether a free tier exists |
| Unresolved identification | What the aid reports when it cannot reach a confident match |
Enter any app's suggestion on your worksheet as a provisional identification, along with the app name and version. Treat a photo-based match as a starting point for your observation record. It is not a determination of edibility, and the methods in this article are for documenting fungi, not for deciding whether to eat them.
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