Methodology
How 4est estimates habitat suitability
Habitat Match compares what 4est documents about a species with what the forest inventory actually records in a compartment. The result is an ecological suitability assessment — not a claim that a mushroom grows there.
Four signals
- Host treesA species' documented host trees are compared with the stand's dominant species and associates.
- Site typeLatvia's forest site-type classification is compared with the species' documented habitats.
- Stand ageWhere a species is associated with mature stands, age is used as a supporting signal.
- SeasonWhere a species has a documented fruiting season, it is assessed against the current month.
Documented host trees: Pine, Spruce, Birch, Aspen, Alder, Oak, Hazel, Larch.
Categories
- Very suitableSeveral supporting signals at once.
- SuitableConsistent signals, but no clear predominance.
- PossiblePartially consistent signals, or a single supporting signal.
- Insufficient dataThe compartment has no classifier data — it is neither an advantage nor a drawback.
These forest conditions appear suitable for this species. This is an ecological suitability assessment, not evidence that the species is present.
Unknown is not negative
When data is missing, 4est says so. Missing tree, site-type or age data never lowers a rating and is never hidden behind a category.
What this assessment is not
- It is not evidence that a species grows in a given place.
- It is not a probability — 4est never shows percentages or a "yield forecast".
- It is not foraging safety advice; identifying a mushroom is always a human responsibility.
- It does not use your precise location and never asks for device geolocation.
Data sources
Forest compartment data comes from the LVM/VMD open datasets. Species ecology comes from the 4est species encyclopaedia, built from GBIF taxonomy and curated project data.
See it on the map
Pick a species in the Forest Atlas and the map will shade the areas whose conditions appear suitable.
Open the Forest AtlasOpen data from LVM/VMD, the Nature Conservation Agency and other Latvian open data sources. Attribution is shown with the respective layers.