Some mushrooms are easy to identify without a lot of work. Sometimes, it’s not so easy. Mushrooms don’t always cooperate and look just the way the picture in the field guide does , and if truth were known, there are mistakes in even the best field guides, a scary prospect.  One tool to help ID mushrooms is taking spore prints. Mushrooms have spores and a particular variety will always have the same colour spore print each time you find them.  In combination with other characteristics, the spore print can be very helpful.  I do mine on these handy log sheets which I’ve printed on card stock.

To take a spore print, cut the stem, or stipe, close to the cap, then set the cap, lower side down, on the surface you are using to capture the print. My handy-dandy log sheets have a black and white striped surface. This is because sometimes spore prints are white, and if so, you can’t see them on white paper. Cover your specimens with a bowl of some sort and leave them overnight. They will leave you a spore print of a particular colour.

Occasionally, it’s difficult to get a spore print, especially with younger specimens, but most times, it’s no big deal. Some field guides, like Barron’s  Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada, are organized largely by spore print colour, which can be very handy.