How to make a mushroom pore print

Mushroom spores are small and cannot be seen easily, but you can make a spore print that will show the color of the spores in mass. Spore color is used to identify mushrooms.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A mushroom not too young or too old
• Paper
• Bowl

1. Collect a mushroom that is not too young or too old

2. Cut the stem and place the mushroom stem side down half the mushroom cap on a black paper and the other half touching a white sheet of paper

3. Cover with a bowl and leave it undisturbed for about 12 hours

4. Lift the bowl and the mushroom cap off and you will see the colorful pattern formed from the collection of spores that have shed from the mushroom

Tips & Warnings

• This is a good idea for a science project where you can collect mushrooms and photograph their pore prints
• Be careful while handling poisonous mushrooms

[Susanh]

on 2/2/2009 Very interesting science project.

[Fuller1972]

on 6/13/2008 I used to do this when I was a child, except we also sprayed hairspray on the paper.