Taking a spore print

Mushrooms often share many characteristics, and it can be difficult to differentiate between two based purely on the features of the mushroom itself. One key part of identifying a mushroom is taking a spore print, which can often help to narrow down your search.

In order to take a spore print, you need to collect the mushroom and take it home with you. It's important to note that depending on where you are, collecting mushrooms may or may not be allowed. If you're in a park or similar, there is usually a sign at the entrance with the bylaws, should it be illegal. Additionally, it is illegal to pick wild food anywhere in the UK with the intention to sell it, and should only pick as much as you require.

Even while taking these things into account, I still think we should be as mindful as possible about the nature around us. Fungi play a vital part in the ecosystem. With that in mind, I always try and protect the environment around me as much as possible, following a few simple rules:

Never take more than 1/4 of what's available. If there's less than four mushrooms, don't pick them.
Only pick older mushrooms, so that the younger ones have a chance to release more spores. If one has broken, take that one.
Use something with holes in, such as a wicker basket or mesh bag, to collect the mushrooms, so that they can release their spores on their journey to your home.

Now that we've taken care to look after our environment, let's get onto making a spore print! The process is pretty simple.

Grab some paper or card. Spore prints can be a number of different colours, but white and brown/black are quite common colours, so I usually either choose a colour that I know lots of colours will show up on (I used orange here) or use half white and half black paper.

2. Remove the stem from your mushroom.

3. Place the cap gill-side down on the paper. If you're using white and black paper, try to put half the cap on the white side and half on the black side.

4. Put a few drops of water on the cap. This encourages the spores to release.

5. Place a glass over the cap. This helps to keep the moisture locked in.

6. Leave for a few hours. I tend to leave it for 12, or overnight.

7. Remove the glass and lift the cap to reveal your spore print!

You can also scrape the spores closer together to get a better sense of the colour, if that helps. Knowing the colour of your spore print should help you to identify the mushroom you have, along with other characteristics you've noted.

See more about identifying mushrooms here.

Comments

Milky Conecap - Conocybe apala

Often, I will find a mushroom and never be able to work out what it is. I will spend days searching the internet and looking in books, but never able to solve the mystery. It can be really frustrating. This happened to me at the beginning of May, when I was walking home from an appointment and saw a white mushroom poking out of the grass nearby. It was the first time I'd seen a mushroom in over a month, so I was pretty excited about it. I did what I usually do: took pictures, examined it, made notes. Then I went home to do some research, and couldn't find anything. So I forgot about it. Yesterday, whilst I was doing research for another mushroom, I accidentally clicked on a wrong link and ended up on a page describing the Milky Conecap , or Conocybe apala. I had an "aha!" moment, as I recognised instantly that it was the same mushroom I had spent so long trying to find a name for. Let me tell you, there's nothing more satisfying than putting the final pieces...

Dung Roundhead - Stropharia semiglobata

The start of mushroom season is finally upon us, and I couldn't be more excited. Although the bouts of rain weren't ideal for our wedding last week, they did mean lots of exciting finds during our honeymoon, walking through damp North Wales. I will no doubt make many posts about the intriguing finds we stumbled across during our time away, but I wanted to start at our first fungal encounter, the Dung Roundhead , or Stropharia semiglobata. Scattered across the huge pastures we were walking through were hundreds of them. And though the name suggests they grow exclusively on dung, the majority of them were in fact beside dung. The gills are adnate and ranged in colour depending on the age of the mushroom. Younger ones had a more purplish tinge to them, while the more mature species had black gills. The spore print is a dark purplish-brown colour. Characteristics Habitat: On or beside dung, usually in pasture. Cap: 1-3cm across, hemispherical. Cream to y...

Common Conecap - Conocybe tenera

Lately I've been seeing mushrooms pop up all over the place, which of course excites the little nerd inside of me. Unfortunately, most of the time when I've seen a cluster of mushrooms, I've been on the bus and, being as awful at directions as I am, I can never remember where I saw them. Such is life. Today I spotted a couple peeking out from the grass not far from where I found the Milky Conecaps last month. In fact, at first glance I thought that's what they might be. However, it was the afternoon and we hadn't had any rain since yesterday, plus their caps weren't quite long enough. I like to describe Milky Conecaps as looking like almost-closed umbrellas. Instead, these mushrooms looked like tiny hats. So I snapped some pictures, put one in my bag and went on my way. Although they turned out not to be Milky Conecaps, they are still somewhat closely related. These small buddies are called Common Conecaps , or Conocybe tenera. They enjoy simil...

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