#How to make a spore print how to
I’m not going to get into how to do this because it’s a bit more complicated than the standard spore print. The print is a way to collect and store spores for growing later. Sometimes spore prints are actually for trying to grow a mushroom. (They also have different gill coloration.). But Horse Mushroom will have a brown spore print while a Destroying Angel will have a white spore print. For example, deadly Destroying Angel Amanitas. (If you’ve ever looked at the underside of a Portabella mushroom, then you know what gills look like.) The problem? There are other mushrooms with a white cap and stalk, a ring around the stalk, and gills under the cap. Horse Mushroom also has gills under the stalk. Horse Mushroom has a white cap and stalk and there is a white membranous ring around the stalk. Consider, for instance, a tasty edible called Horse Mushroom ( Agaricus arvensis, scientifically-speaking). Why in the world would someone want to make a spore print? One of the two main reasons is because mushroom foragers such as myself want to be sure of the identification of a mushroom. Spore color is one important factor in identification it can prevent someone from making a potentially deadly mistake when foraging for edible or medicinal mushrooms. When you make a spore print, you essentially get a big pile of spores so you can see what color they are. But spores are too small to see individually with the naked eye. They are usually released from the underside of a mushroom cap. What’s a spore print? Well, first, mushroom spores are how mushrooms reproduce. Her website is For more information & to learn more about Anna and her work, visit the Oshada Natural Health & Durango School of Herbal Studies on Facebook! Long term goals are to introduce herbs to folks who aren’t already on the bandwagon, including allopathic medical professionals, and to empower her clients with herbal traditions augmented by critical evaluation of current research. She is an avid plant harvester and medicine maker, preferring weeds, mushrooms and only the most abundant native plants as her allies. Marija is passionate about learning and teaching and has a clinical practice while leading classes and workshops locally and online. She studied herbalism with Pam Fisher at the Ohlone Herbal Center in Berkeley, Kathi Keville at the Green Medicine Herb School and with others. Before falling in love with herbalism (and mushroomism) she worked a dozen years as a biomedical scientist in cancer biology and infectious disease research - first as a research technician at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, then as a doctoral student at the University of Washington Department of Microbiology, and finally as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.
![how to make a spore print how to make a spore print](https://www.maryamato.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/MAW-fair-spore-print-and-shroom-w.jpg)
Anna Marija is an herbalist and scientist in Durango, CO who spent her childhood wandering the woods of suburban Philadelphia.