april 2010

PF RED SPORED MUTANT

Back when the Halle Bop comet was disappearing into the western sky (for a date only - nothing emplied), the Professor had a petrie dish with four normal looking PF shroom caps spore printing. After a few days, it was time to remove the caps and store away the spore prints. Three of the prints were normal purplish cubie spores but the fourth one was unique. The spores were a deep reddish brown color.

At first, the Professor thought that the reddish spore print was contaminated, but he let the dish dehumidify normally and then taped it up for storage. On close examination of the spores with a magnifier, the reddish spores were not contaminated but the color was with the spores themselves and nothing growing on them as first thought.

So next, the Professor made a spore solution with a streak of the red spores and injected a PF jar with them. They cultured normally and began to form primordia invitro just like a normal PF shroom. When the caps upturned, no spores were seen collecting around the shrooms. A couple of the caps were taken and placed in a petrie dish for printing. And as expected, the Professor hovered around the dish every few hours to see what would give. By the next day, color was detected around the periphery of the caps and low and behold, the color was RED! The Professor jumped with joy, a specie change! Spore color is one of the prime facets of what a specie is. In Mycology, if one has two mushrooms that look identical, grow identically and appear on the same substrate identically but have different colored spores, they are not the same specie.

Next, the Professor inoculated a PF cake on one side with normal PF purple spores and on the other side of the cake, the red spores. Fruiting occurred and on each side, the shrooms gave their respective colored spores. There was no mingling of the shrooms. They kept their own place. So as far as the Professor's opinion goes, the PF shroom some how and for some unknown reason split off into a new specie that ever since, has remained so - always giving the reddish spores and never any purple. Many cultivations of the red spore has been done, and it has remained the red spore - a new mushroom on planet earth.

Yachaj Paye's photos of redspore and normal spore prints and caps.

SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE PHOTO OF NORMAL PF PURPLE SPORES by Professor Fanaticus

SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE PHOTO OF RED SPORES BY THE PROFESSOR.

Red Spore page by Professor Fanaticus

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