question 15: colour of spore print

The spores are the "seeds" of mushrooms, emitted here by the mature mushroom gills.

The "spore print" stands for the spores taken in mass. The colour of this mass can be seen with the naked eye and constitutes a very important character for the identification. Unfortunately, gathering enough spores so as to be able to spot their colour is a rather long process (one or several hours).
The spore print being a strong and usually sure character, the system makes it possible to force this feature upon all candidates by checking the "force selected answer to criterion" tickbox, to exclude all mushrooms who do not have this character from the search engine output. For example, if our unknown mushroom has a clear white spore print, by selecting simultaneously "white, cream or yellowish" and "force selected answer to criterion", we can exclude from the output list all mushrooms who do not have a white spore print.

Here is an example of procedure to obtain a spore print from a gilled mushroom:

Step 1 : get hold of a blue or green (not white!) sheet of paper, so as to be able to spot the colour of the spores more easily.		Step 2 : make a little hole in the middle with a pair of scissors, large enough to be able to insert the stem of the mushroom in it		if possible, choose a mature enough specimen, but not too old. Adjust the size of the hole to the stem's

Step 3 : place the cap on the sheet, inserting the stem through the hole. We can make the base of stem touch a shallow bit of water, if the mushroom is dry (not too much, to avoid ruining the whole setup with dampness).		Step 4 : let it rest for an hour at least (we can see here a bit of white deposit appearing slowly over time)		Step 5 : after making sure we have enough deposit, we can remove the mushroom completely and check the colour of the spore deposit on the sheet, the "spore print" . It is here clearly white

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