Waldschatzfinder Natur-Engine
The Natur-Engine: It reads nature before you set off.
Forests, meadows, floodplains, mountains and valleys – plus soil, weather and season. Brought together for every place in Europe and recalculated every day. That is where mushroom forecasts, plant maps and tours on the best day come from – at Waldschatzfinder and at partners who want more than mushrooms. It runs locally on our own servers – not stitched together from other apps.
What the Natur-Engine knows
More than 50 natural factors for every place. The raw data is open – what the engine makes of it is far more than a collection: our own weather processing, checked against real measurements every day, our own models per species and plant, our own routing and a knowledge of the landscape that connects it all.
Weather
Temperature, rain, humidity, wind and evaporation – with a historically far-reaching look back from locally stored data, plus today and the coming days, checked against real measurements.
Soil
How moist and warm the soil is right now, how quickly it dries out again and what it brings by nature.
Forest & tree species
Where forest stands, which trees grow there and where it has disappeared in recent years.
Meadows & open land
Meadows, pastures, hedges and forest edges – where the land is open and where woody strips structure it.
Floodplains & damp places
River floodplains, stream valleys and damp hollows – habitats with species of their own.
Mountains & valleys
Elevation, slope, sunny and shady sides, ridge or hollow, cold air and fog in the valley – for every point in the terrain.
Season
When each species and plant has its season – and where the season is starting or ending right now.
Paths, roads & navigation
Hiking trails, forest and farm tracks, cycle, gravel and mountain-bike trails, roads, more than a million car parks and stops – with our own routing, turn-by-turn directions and navigation that keeps working without signal.
Light, sun & shade
Sunrise and sunset, dusk and turnaround time, sunny and shady slopes, shady paths through forest and along water – so you stay cool in summer and are back in time.
Safety on the way
The shortest way back when it gets dark, the weather turns or something happens – plus more than 24,000 rescue points, shelters and the emergency numbers. A help, never a replacement for the emergency call.
Summits, views & alpine pastures
Summits, passes, viewpoints and photo spots, alpine pastures, shelters and springs.
Food & places to stay
Around 400,000 restaurants, cafés, beer gardens, farm shops, huts, hotels, guesthouses, holiday flats, hostels and campsites – with opening hours where known.
Outdoor sport & leisure
Ski runs, lifts, cross-country trails, sledging runs, winter walks, ice rinks, via ferratas, bathing spots and thermal baths.
Protected areas
Where nature is specially protected and which species must not be picked.
Community finds
What foragers have reported – only roughly located, so good spots stay protected.
Live
The Natur-Engine right now
All components running
- Rain radar2 Min. ago
- Latest weather model runtoday, 12:20
- Weather forecast recalculatedtoday, 10:30
- Checked against weather stationstoday, 11:40
- Snow depths measuredtoday, 11:40
- Own weather archiveNov 1–Nov 13, 2026 (13 days)
- Historical soil archive up toNov 8, 2026
- Mushroom and nature maps updatedtoday, 03:50
- Heat and drought maptoday, 02:50
- Plant mapNov 7, 10:13
- Routingready · answers in 16 ms
- Forecast reaches untilNov 24, 2026 (10 days)
Refreshes itself every minute · last checked 16:31:50
What it turns that into
Mushroom chance per species
For your place and the coming days.
Try it →Species and hotspot maps
Where things are growing right now – across Europe.
Try it →Plants & herbs
What is flowering and ripe right now.
Try it →Tours on the best day
The Waldschatz planner builds the route.
Try it →Above the fog
Where the sun shines above the fog today.
Try it →Winter & changing seasons
Winter mushrooms, snow, the start of spring.
Try it →Why an engine rather than a mushroom map?
A mushroom map shows one value for one thing. The Natur-Engine understands the place itself – which is why it can use the same data for mushrooms, plants, hikes, fog or snow. And it still has work to do when mushroom season is over.
Every map from the Natur-Engine
The same engine draws every one of these maps – each with a different view of the landscape, depending on the question.
The engine in numbers
Figures live from our systems.
More accurate where it matters
We checked the Natur-Engine’s weather against weather stations that were not used in the calculation – and compared it with a widely used, freely available weather service. Precisely where it gets tricky for tours and mushrooms, the engine is much closer to reality:
Comparison with station measurements in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, autumn 2026. Averages – depending on place and weather the deviation can be larger or smaller.
Why not everyone can do this
A nature engine needs storage and computing power – lots of it
Anyone who wants to keep weather, soil, forest and terrain ready for every place in Europe needs huge data sets that grow every day – and machines that work through them night after night for thousands of places. On top come the path network, elevation model, map images and the AI for our companion. That is the bottleneck: on typical hosting platforms this is usually only possible with expensive add-ons, or not at all – a website there may neither store this much nor compute for hours.
That is why the Natur-Engine runs on its own hardware. It is more work – but it is the only way you get forecasts, maps, routes and navigation from one place, without a subscription and without waiting.
Our lead
With the Natur-Engine we are out in front
Not a mushroom app. Not a weather app. Not a hiking map. But what connects all three.
The Natur-Engine is an extremely powerful tool: a big kit of tested building blocks – weather, soil, landscape, light, paths, places to eat, sport, safety and more. We put new features together from these blocks, in top quality, because every block is already finished, maintained and checked against reality.
A kit full of building blocks
Mushroom forecast, above-the-fog walk, sledging hill, shady summer tour or emergency help – everything comes from the same blocks, just combined differently.
Top quality from the start
Every block is tested and maintained daily. A new feature inherits that quality – it doesn’t have to start from zero.
For you
You get mushrooms, plants, weather, landscape and tours from one place – and a steady stream of new ideas that arrive quickly and reliably.
What classic apps don’t do like this
- A look back that reaches farWeather and soil reaching far back in time – from locally stored data, instantly available and independent of outside services. Mushrooms and plants react to weeks, not to today.
- Rates every place – even without reportsThe engine needs no one else’s find points: it recognises the right habitat even where nobody has ever reported anything.
- Recognises fog seas and cold airWhen fog sits in the valley and the sun shines above, the engine knows from which height it clears – and which summit is above it.
- Season by real weather, not the calendarWhen the season starts or ends at your place follows from the actual weather – not from a table.
- Back before darkThe engine works out whether you will finish before dusk and offers the shorter way home on the go.
- Rain on the way – with shelterIf rain is coming, it tells you during the tour and names the nearest hut or shelter.
- Open when you arriveIt checks whether the inn or hut is open at your arrival time – not just whether it exists.
- Snow check from measurementsWhether there is enough snow on the sledging hill comes from measured snow depths, not guesses.
- Emergency with rescue point112 and your own position to read out – plus the nearest rescue point and the shortest way there.
- Everything in one calculationWeather, soil, landscape, light and paths are assessed together – not in five apps side by side that know nothing of each other.
Every advantage of the Natur-Engine
- Everything in one placeWeather, soil, forest, terrain, season and paths in one assessment – instead of five apps side by side.
- New every dayThe engine recalculates daily; forecasts are refreshed several times a day.
- Checked against measurementsModels alone are not enough: the engine checks its weather against real weather stations – in the mountains too.
- All of EuropeFrom Scandinavia to Italy – especially detailed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- Useful all yearMushrooms, herbs, berries, hiking, fog, snow, winter mushrooms and the start of spring – not just in autumn.
- From forecast to footpathThe engine knows the path network: the forecast becomes a ready-made tour with navigation.
- Works without signalMap, route and notes can be saved to your phone beforehand.
- FastMuch is calculated in advance – results arrive in seconds instead of after a long wait.
- IndependentOwn servers, own weather processing: largely independent of whether an outside service switches off, throttles or gets more expensive.
- Your data stays with usYour places and tours are calculated and stored on our own servers – not with advertisers or data brokers.
- Free and ad-freeFor users without a subscription, most features even without an account.
- HonestThe engine calculates and makes nothing up. We never leave safety questions such as edibility to a machine.
- Real, not generatedThe pictures and stories around the engine come from real days outside – not from an image generator.
- Landscape, not dotsInstead of just old find points, it shows where the right habitat is – forest, meadow or floodplain – even where nobody has ever reported anything.
- More than mushroomsPlants, herbs, berries, hiking, cycling, winter sports, fog, snow, food and places to stay – the same engine knows everything you need outdoors.
- Foundation for AragornOur AI companion uses the engine as a tool – its tips are based on data, not guesses.
- 12 languagesFor people across Europe in their own language.
- Grows fastBecause everything runs in-house, new ideas arrive in days rather than months.
- Cleanly licensedThe engine relies on open data whose licences also allow commercial use – partners receive the required attributions along with it.
- As an API for partnersThe same engine also powers our partners’ websites and apps.
For partners
The Natur-Engine API
The Natur-Engine is not just for Waldschatzfinder. Build it into your website or app – for tourism, outdoor, mountain huts, nature parks, environmental education or anything that wants more than mushrooms. You get ready-made assessments, not raw data to crunch yourself.
- Mushroom chances per place and species for the coming days
- Plants, herbs and berries: what is growing, flowering and ripe right now
- Landscape per place: forest, meadow, floodplain, elevation, slope and valley position
- Outdoor weather assessment, snow and fog
- Suitable forest, tour suggestions and hiking trails
- Routes with turn-by-turn directions – on foot, by bike, gravel or mountain bike
- Emergency: nearest rescue points and the shortest way there
- With a key, an agreed quota and attributions ready to embed
Request access Docs, widgets & examples
Already in use – for example in the Alpine travel planner Alpenedelweiß. We hand out access personally.
Examples (shortened) – tap to open:
Mushroom chance per species
GET /api/v1/… ?lat=47.68&lon=11.57 { "place": "Bad Tölz", "best_day": "2026-11-16", "species": [ { "key": "steinpilz", "chance": 71 }, { "key": "maronenroehrling", "chance": 64 } ], "forest": "suitable" }
Mountain-bike route
GET /api/v1/nav/route.php?pts=47.68,11.56|47.71,11.61&profile=mtb { "route": { "profile": "mtb", "distance_m": 7779, "ascent_m": 143, "time_s": 2187, "coords": [[47.680063, 11.559974, 696.8], …], "hints": [[3, 1, 0, 110, 1], [5, 3, 0, 57, -25], …] }, "profiles": ["hiking", "shortest", "bike", "bike_safe", "gravel", "mtb"] }
Emergency: rescue point + shortest way
GET /api/v1/nav/rescue.php?lat=47.70&lon=11.60&route=1 { "emergency": "112", "position": { "text": "47.70000° N, 11.60000° E" }, "points": [ { "name": "Mountain rescue station", "m": 2940, "bearing": 216 }, … ], "route": { "profile": "shortest", "distance_m": 3892, "time_s": 2850, … } }
Plants & season
GET /api/v1/… ?lat=47.68&lon=11.57 { "month": 11, "ripe": [ { "key": "schlehe", "status": "ripe" }, { "key": "hagebutte", "status": "ripe" } ], "landscape": { "forest": "mixed forest", "meadow": true, "floodplain": false } }
Places to eat on the way
GET /api/v1/… ?bbox=… { "places": [ { "kind": "inn", "open_now": true, "closes": "18:00" }, { "kind": "hut", "open_now": false, "note": "closed today" }, { "kind": "camping", … } ] }
Natur-Engine FAQ
What is the Natur-Engine?
The Natur-Engine is our own system that reads the landscape for every place in Europe – forests, meadows, floodplains, mountains and valleys – and combines it with soil, weather and season. From that it calculates outdoor assessments: mushroom chances per species, plants and herbs, the best day and matching tours. It is the heart of Waldschatzfinder, but it is also available to external services that want more than mushrooms. It runs on our own servers and recalculates every day.
Where does the data come from?
From open data published by weather services, European satellite programmes, research institutions and authorities. The full list with licences is on our sources page. What the engine makes of it – processing, checking against real measurements and the assessment per species – is our own development.
Is the Natur-Engine an AI?
Not in the sense of a chatbot. The engine works with traceable models that are checked against real finds – it does not make things up. Our AI companion Aragorn uses the engine as a tool when it advises you outdoors.
Which places does it cover?
All of Europe. It is most detailed where especially precise geodata exist – for example in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. You can enter any place directly in the mushroom forecast or the Waldschatz planner.
Does the Natur-Engine cost anything?
Not for you as a user: everything the engine calculates on waldschatzfinder.de is free to use, most of it without an account. For partners there is the Natur-Engine API – get in touch.
What is the Natur-Engine API?
An interface that lets partners build the engine’s results into their own websites and apps: mushroom chances per place and species, season, outdoor weather assessment, suitable forest and tour suggestions. It delivers ready-made assessments rather than raw data, with a key and an agreed quota.
Data sources and licences · Technology & company · Updated: 14.11.2026
Note: all Natur-Engine assessments are forecasts based on open data and come without guarantee – weather, paths, opening hours and rescue points may change or be incomplete. Only pick mushrooms and plants you can identify with certainty. On the way you decide for yourself; in an emergency always call 112 first.
Try the Natur-Engine at your place
Mushrooms are one part of the engine, plants and tours are others. Choose where to start – free.