Dear Padmini, To make a spore print, the stipe of the fresh specimen is cut from the pileus and is placed gill-side or pore-side down on a piece of white paper. The pileus is then covered with a bowl or a jar to retain moisture and to prevent it from drying out too quickly. A spore print will be visible in one to 12 hours. Basidiospores come in a variety of colours and shades. The spores from a print are also vital at a later stage of identification to measure the spore sizes because the print includes mainly mature spores. So looking at these mushrooms we can identify till the genus level but to know the species we need to look at various other features. For nature lovers, it is enough to know the genus and its common name, I suppose.Therefore, best option is that when you take a picture remove some fruiting bodies and take its picture from the underside also. In one picture both the upper and the lower side can be included. Happy viewing, Dr IK Sethi
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 10:17 PM, Padmini Raghavan <[email protected]>wrote: > As I am an amateur nature lover, could you please tell me what a spore > print is? Should it be sent with the photo of the fungus for id? > Padmini Raghavan. > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
