This afternoon on our nature walk we went hunting for some of the mushrooms we had spotted the other afternoon growing out in the lawn.
So armed with a rubber glove (in case they were poisonous) and a paper bag I collected some specimens for our spore printing project that is shown in our mushroom guide.
The first step was to get out a black piece of construction paper and a white piece of paper for placing the mushroom caps on.
The reason that I used two different colors of paper is because different mushrooms have different colored spores which can be light or white, pink, brown or dark colors. If you have a mushroom that leaves a light colored spore print you will want to use black paper so that you can see it and if you have a mushroom that leaves a dark colored spore print you will want to use a white colored paper to insure the spore print is visible. I'm not exactly sure what mushrooms we have here so I put one of each mushroom on each color of paper to make sure I get a spore printing that will show up : ) I'm hoping that when we see the spore prints it will help us to identify the mushrooms.
Once you have your paper set up in a spot where they won't be disturbed, separate the mushroom caps from their stems and place them gills down on your papers. Now place a glass jar over top of each of the mushroom caps so that they are free from drafts. You don't want any air movement around them or it will scatter the spores and you won't get the desired pattern :)
Now we wait. It says to leave them overnight and then you can lift the jars and mushroom caps to reveal their spore prints. I can't wait to see if it works since I'm not sure what the best time to try this experiment would be :)
