Subject: Why no spore print?

From: [email-masked] (Murray R. Falk)
Date: 25 Aug 1996 17:39:22 GMT

My wife and I recently have been studying mushrooms as an adjunct to
our walks in the woods.  (We are young seniors,  just retired.)  One of the
characteristics of identification, according to the books we have read, is 
the spore print color.  The other evening, we found two individuals of what we 
have provisionally identified as Lactarius torminosus, and two of what may
be Polyporus radicatus, but we cannot get spore prints from them.  They are
not dried out and old, nor extremely young.  Each specimen was laid half on a strip 
of white paper , and half on black, then covered with a glass, and left now nearly 30 
hours. This is the same way we got nice prints with other specimens, but this time, 
absolutely nothing is visible on either color of paper, except some 
warping due to the increased humitity entrapped there.

The question is: WHY NO SPORE PRINT?

Please reply directly, as I do not monitor this list often.

Thanks in advance.

Murray, Calgary                       
                  
       e-mail:   [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Mycos)
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 1996 23:38:38 GMT

>       e-mail:   [email-masked] 
As far as I know it's still a bit of a mystery with all kinds of
hypothetical arguments offered. Experienced mycologist often put a
drop of water on the top of the cap which appears to work_ _ _
sometimes. Anyhow, give it a try, you wont be any further behind.

     It's my experience that polypores or often notoriously difficult
to get a spore print from, which seems odd when you consider that in
the bush the spore deposit often seems to virtually hide the fruit
body.  I don't know. Best of luck and geep trying !

                                            Gary Williams

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From: Marco Floriani <[email-masked]>
Date: 3 Sep 1996 14:47:29 GMT

Probably the conditions where not suitable for the fungi to free the spores;
I have had similar experiences with some Russulas of which I was very
interested to have a good spore-print; usually it is a matter of humidity,
so you can try to put under the glass, next to the mushroom, a small piece
of wet paper; sometimes, anyway, it happens that the fungus does not free its
spores. There is also the case of sterile specimens, but it is a quite rare
situation, and I don't think you could have collected sterile specimens of
two different species the same day.

Don't discourage and try again.
________________________________________________________________________________
Marco Floriani
Via Vigolana, 8
I-38057 Pergine Valsugana (TN)
E-mail : <[email-masked]>
________________________________________________________________________________

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From: [email-masked] (David N. Gaines)
Date: 16 Sep 1996 03:55:55 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] says...
>Please reply directly, as I do not monitor this list often.
One possibility is that these fungi were ready to drop their spores, and 
you exposed them to a dry wind.  I had trouble getting spore prints from 
some specimens which I picked in the deep damp forest and then carried 
home on the car dashboard with the windows open.  I can only assume that 
the spores dropped and blew away and once I put the caps on paper there 
were so few spores left to drop that the prints were almost 
undetectable.

David