The color of the powdery print, called a spore print, is used to help classify mushrooms and can help to identify them.

All Armillaria species have a white spore print and none have a volva ( compare Amanita ).

have a yellowish to greenish yellow cast and a dark brown to grey-brown spore print.

Galerina has a dark brown spore print and is deadly poisonous ( alpha-amanitin ) – see: mushroom poisoning.

Making a spore print of the mushroom Volvariella volvacea shown in composite: ( photo lower half ) mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper ; ( photo upper half ) cap removed after 24 hours showing pinkish-tan spore print.

The spore print of a mushroom is an important diagnostic character in most handbooks for identifying mushrooms.

A spore print is made by placing the spore producing surface flat on a sheet of dark and white paper or on a sheet of clear, stiff plastic, which facilitates moving the spore print to a darker or lighter surface for improved contrast ; for example, it is easier to determine whether the spore print is pure white or, rather, very slightly pigmented.

A mushroom cannot be identified from its spore print alone ; the spore print is only one characteristic used in making a taxonomic determination.

The spore wall has been shown to possess three layers, the middle of which is composed primarily of cellulose, and the innermost is sensitive to cellulase and pronase.

Differentiation is the formation of cell types, from what is originally one cell – the zygote or spore.

A spore often has a protrusion at one end, called an apiculus, which is the point of attachment to the basidium, termed the apical germ pore, from which the hypha emerges when the spore germinates.

The typical fungal spore size is 1-40 micrometer in length.

Although the botulinum toxin is destroyed by thorough cooking over the course of a few minutes, the spore itself is not killed by the temperatures reached with normal sea-level-pressure boiling, leaving it free to grow and again produce the toxin when conditions are right.

The name " endospore " is suggestive of a spore or seed-like form ( endo means within ), but it is not a true spore ( i. e. not an offspring ).

The spore is sometimes surrounded by a thin covering known as the exosporium, which overlies the spore coat.

The spore coat, which acts like a sieve that excludes large toxic molecules like lysozyme, is resistant to many toxic molecules and may also contain enzymes that are involved in germination.

The core contains the spore chromosomal DNA which is encased in chromatin-like proteins known as SASPs ( small acid-soluble spore proteins ), that protect the spore DNA from UV radiation and heat.

The arrangement of spore layers is as follows:

The DNA is replicated and a membrane wall known as a spore septum begins to form between it and the rest of the cell.

It is commonly characterised by rupture or absorption of the spore coat, swelling of the endospore, an increase in metabolic activity, and loss of resistance to environmental stress.

Once crossed, the dikaryons are established and a second spore stage is formed, numbered " I " and called aecia, which form dikaryotic aeciospores in dry chains in inverted cup-shaped bodies embedded in host tissue.

On the primary host a repeating spore stage is formed, numbered " II ", the urediospores in dry pustules called uredinia.

Many novices have mistaken humid water marks on paper for white spore prints, or discolored paper from oozing liquids on lamella edges for colored spored prints.

Historically the classification of many families of fungi were based on spore colour, an example being Tricholomataceae being a large family containing many fungi whose common factor was having white spores.

In Rolf Singer's classification of the Agaricales mushrooms, it is also the type species of section Boletus, a grouping of about 30 related boletes united by a number of characteristics: a mild-tasting, white flesh that does not change colour when exposed to air ; a smooth to distinctly raised, netted pattern over at least the uppermost portion of the stem ; a yellow-brown or olive-brown spore print ; white tubes that later become yellowish then greenish, which initially appear to be stuffed with cotton ; and cystidia that are not strongly coloured.

Cross-section showing white flesh, broad stem, and spore tubes on the underside of the cap

Armillaria solidipes has a white spore print.

This is stained white when seen as a spore print.

The fruit body will produce a white spore print if laid onto a sheet of paper.

The spore print is white and the spores egg-shaped conical and 7 – 10 μm long.

The spore print is white to cream.

The spores range from white to cream to slightly yellow in deposit, although a spore print may be difficult to obtain given the shape of the fruit body.

The gills and spore print are both white in colour.

On most common cultural media, it produces many dry, powdery conidia in distinctive white spore balls.

(" Sausage poisoning " was a common problem in 18th and 19th century Germany, and was most likely caused by botulism ) However, isolates from subsequent outbreaks were always found to be anaerobic spore formers, so Ida Bengston proposed that the organism be placed into the genus Clostridium as the Bacillus genus was restricted to aerobic spore-forming rods.

In common parlance, the difference between a " spore " and a " gamete " ( both together called gonites ) is that a spore will germinate and develop into a sporeling, while a gamete needs to combine with another gamete before developing further.

In trilete spores, all four spores share a common origin and are in contact with each other, so when they separate, each spore shows three lines radiating from a center pole.

The bush rat, a common vector for spore dispersal of mycorrhiza commonly known as truffles, has been extirpated from many micro-habitats of Australia.

Among the ascolichens, spores are produced in spore-producing bodies, the three most common spore body types are the apothecia, perithecia and the pycnidia.

For instance, the genus Ceratomyxa is a common parasite of the gallbladder of many fish species ; they have " boomerang-like " spores with two polar capsules resembling eyes in the middle of the spore.

The spores of Galerina feature an ornamentation that comes from the outer layer of the spore breaking up on maturity to produce either warts, wrinkles or " ears ", flaps of material loosened from where the spore was attached to the basidia.