Resupinate (was "Pink, crusty Lichen")

You could raise this in the Change Requests forum: http://www.fungi.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=249

Done.

. . . . Is this what you had in mind? Is it too high? . . . .

You only need to raise the sample fungus sufficiently so that there is a tiny gap between it and the glass-slide. (A couple of mm at most).

Matchsticks, cocktail sticks, or even bits of folded paper, laid across the width of the slide, would give you more than enough of a gap.

To be honest, with fungi samples on small twigs and the like, I generally just rest the twig directly on the slide, as there is usually plenty of gap left by the curvature of the twig, or differences in thickness of the fungus, to allow more than enough spores to drop.

Likewise, with gilled fungi, (unless there is something atypical going on), I just cut the stem off, and rest the cap, (or part cap), directly onto a slide, and it always gives a good solid spore print.

What you’ve done in the photo will work, but the spore drop will be more diffused, because the spores will be able to float down over a far wider area than if the fungus were much nearer to the glass-slide.

Think of it this way. – Say for example, a spore is 10µ in diameter. It would have to travel 100 times its own diameter to fall just 1mm.

If you raise the fungus up by about 50mm as here, the spore has to fall 5000 times its own diameter before it hits the glass-slide.

Even when the sample & slide are enclosed to retain moisture and stop draughts, spores will still be able to float about quite considerably during a fall of 50mm.

So, when taking spore prints/samples, the nearer you have the fungus to the glass, the better.

Regards,

Mike.