Mushroom Prints

I always thought that mushroom prints were so cool.  Not only do they look really neat but they are an art and science experiment all in one.  See the mushroom prints are made by the mushroom spores meaning a part of a reproductive cycle of not only fungi but also bacteria, plants, algea and others.   The older kids will appreciate the science behind it and maybe you can get them to wash their hands more often afraid of unseen bacteria spores.  For the younger ones I will be posting another wash your hands experiment instead.

So I started with lots and lots of mushrooms (portabella) since I was ready to cook my Vegetarian Chilli.

I placed them on a white piece of thick paper like the one used for watercolor painting since mushrooms hold a lot of liquid and once covered will steam up a bit.  If you use thin paper it will buckle and rip easily.

So I covered these for 24 hours so eager to see what will happen.

After 24 hours I can’t say I was not dissapointed.  I guess I could have covered them again and wait longer but the chili was waiting to be cooked and the family was getting hungry.

What did I do wrong?

So I repeated the experiment.  This time I chose one humongous mushroom which I was not planing to cook till I got results.

I made sure that the mushroom was a little bit slimy, for a lack of better description.  I also made sure to eliminate the stem which I did not do in the previous experiment.

I covered the mushroom for over  1 1/2 days (36 hours or so) to not give the spores a chance to escape.  See how much steam has accumulated in the bowl.

After the hours of waiting have passed… WOW !!!

Look at the detail.  It is almost like you have another mushroom growing from underneath this one.  Yeah I forgot you actually do.

They are so cool I wouldn’t mind putting them on a shirt or soap or hairpin or anything.