03/06/2025
PEZIZA!! This spore print is intensely three dimensional! 😯 (First photo is filtered for dramatic effect)
Not sure how to do a spore print? Simps. Just place the mushroom gill-side down (or wherever the spores come out) on a piece of paper or aluminum foil and cover with something to block the air flow. Let it sit overnight and check in the morning. If you suspect a certain color, you can choose white paper for dark spores or dark paper for light colored spores. If you don't know what color it will be, you can place it so half of it is sitting on black and the other half on white paper. Or aluminum foil will catch pretty much any color.
A word of caution... One time I did a spore print and when I checked in the morning, the mushroom had turned to liquid and a gazillion-and-a-half little worms crawling around. It leaked into and stained my oak table. 😬 Oopsies.
Spore prints are not always necessary for identification, but it can be an especially comforting process when helping to confirm your identification between a potentially toxic mushroom and a mushroom you are going to eat, such as a cortinarius (rust-colored spores) vs blewit (lavender-colored spores) or deadly galerina (rusty brown spores) vs velvet foot (white spores).
I'm not exactly sure what the mushroom is in this photo yet. Looks like some sort of brittlestem, which has blackish/purplish spores. Feel free to comment below if you know. It's an LBM (little brown mushroom) for now.
