spore print
Our new garden is nothing but mounds of compost on top of a winter's worth of the chicken's straw. The plants seem to like it, but the fungi think it's completely wonderful. Seriously! I have never seen so many types of toadstools. We've been having some fun trying to identify them with the Field Guide to Mushrooms. The book says that an "essential part of mushroom identification" is to take a spore print. You do this by placing the mushroom cap on a piece of white paper, then putting an upside down glass on top of it and leaving it for a few hours.
It seems our yard mushrooms are all mostly poisonous. We think the little yellow ones are Golden Waxy Caps, but maybe they're Yellow Bolbitius. The description of the fungus seems to best match with the former, but the latter grows in "old straw and rich compost". Both species are edible, but I really don't trust myself there. Plus, they are quite slimy.
































