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Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

magicmushroommap.com

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Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#21

Post by pbaumel »

MattBlissett wrote: post #16
pbaumel wrote: post #2

Hi HN, Liberty caps - or Psilocybe semilanceata - are a psilocybin-containing mushroom that grow naturally in many parts of the world. There is a lot of information online about where and when to look for liberty caps, but I wanted to see if data could help answer this question and boost people's chances of being in the right place at the right time. To summarise how the map works: first, I matched the dates and coor…

> [7] https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NBNSYS0000021551 With data from GBIF you would have almost all of the British records published on the NBN Atlas (about 100 are not shared), plus 2,300 more from other sources. → https://www.gbif.org/species/5242507

Thank you for sharing! I'll look into this source in more detail.

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#22

Post by chippy »

toastal wrote: post #3

I can appreciate that this site is using Mapbox and Plausible instead of giving out user data to Google

the basemap is from Carto, which uses a range of sources including OpenStreetMap and is missing required attribution: https://carto.com/attribution/ https://carto.com/help/working-with-data/attribution/#basema...

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#23

Post by WesleyHale »

Freak_NL wrote: post #7

Isn't mushroom picking something that requires rather more than a modicum of research upfront before any layman should attempt to do so because of the existence of poisonous mushrooms? I mean, this feels eerily reminiscent of Google sending people up to the summit of Ben Nevis across dangerous terrain via a naive line connecting it to the geographically nearest car park. This website does not seem to give any warning…

Yes, there are poisonous mushrooms that are eerily similar to mushrooms that contain psilocybin. [1] Depending on its stage of growth, they can be easily confused, especially by a newcomer.

There is one main rule to foraging. "Never eat a mushroom you can't positively identify." If any trait of it's appearance is questionable, don't eat it.

1: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-confuse-psilocybin-m...

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#24

Post by Pyramus »

Freak_NL wrote: post #7

Isn't mushroom picking something that requires rather more than a modicum of research upfront before any layman should attempt to do so because of the existence of poisonous mushrooms? I mean, this feels eerily reminiscent of Google sending people up to the summit of Ben Nevis across dangerous terrain via a naive line connecting it to the geographically nearest car park. This website does not seem to give any warning…

I would compare this website more to a very rough, speculative weather forecast. It might increase your chances to find psilocybe slightly, but not really.

My understanding is that fatalities from psilocybe (at least in Europe) happen, but are a small percentage of total fatalities, with other species such as amanita being several times more dangerous.

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#27

Post by pbaumel »

hutzlibu wrote: post #5
pbaumel wrote: post #2

Hi HN, Liberty caps - or Psilocybe semilanceata - are a psilocybin-containing mushroom that grow naturally in many parts of the world. There is a lot of information online about where and when to look for liberty caps, but I wanted to see if data could help answer this question and boost people's chances of being in the right place at the right time. To summarise how the map works: first, I matched the dates and coor…

I was wondering, if there is a reason, that britain has lots of areas with high propability and the mainland has not, but then I saw that the growth records [7] indeed only cover the british islands. So I suppose the data on the map is not really accurate as of now? Otherwise what I would have expect from such a site, would be of course also detailed informations on how the mushrooms look exactly and where to look fo…

The differences in the amount of areas across countries is mainly to do with differences in the amount of suitable grassland. For instance, in countries where lots of grassland has been turned into cropland there are fewer areas. In countries where grassland is dominated by, for instance, pastures there will be more areas.

Thanks for your feedback; i've been thinking of adding a field guide on identification. Also good luck hunting!

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#28

Post by pbaumel »

serjester wrote: post #10

Neat. I’d recommend looking into a hexagonal coordinate system. It has the benefit of each block being equidistant from its neighbors and clustering is a breeze. It also looks better. There’s a couple open source libraries Uber has that make it a breeze to work with.

Thanks for the tip - i'll look into this.

Re: Show HN: Magic Mushroom Map

#29

Post by shellac »

Freak_NL wrote: post #7

Isn't mushroom picking something that requires rather more than a modicum of research upfront before any layman should attempt to do so because of the existence of poisonous mushrooms? I mean, this feels eerily reminiscent of Google sending people up to the summit of Ben Nevis across dangerous terrain via a naive line connecting it to the geographically nearest car park. This website does not seem to give any warning…

Liberty caps are very distinctive and, at least where I live, don't grow near any dangerous mushrooms (open grassland / moor). Unless you were very indiscriminate the risks are very low, and since presumably pickers want the _correct_ mushroom some basic research is assumed.
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