By Maureen Fellinger

What does a spore print tell you? Well, in most cases, it is a used to identify mushrooms. When making a spore print, the mushroom cap is laid on white or dark paper. A glass jar is placed over the cap to contain the mushroom during the printing process. After 24 hours hours, the cap is removed from the paper to reveal spores that have fallen. The color of the spore print can help identify the genus of a specimen. There are many different characteristics and observations needed to make a correct ID; you generally cannot identify a mushroom from the spore print alone.

I have a spore print from two years ago that I am still trying to determine what it was telling me. On a crisp, early morning in June 2020, I stopped by a park to kill time before I went to a farm to pick strawberries with some friends. After taking a lengthy walk, I returned to my car. As I sat and checked my phone before leaving, a red cardinal landed on my passenger side window ledge. It sat there pecking at the window, looked at itself in the mirror, and then flew away. It came back to my passenger side again about 5 minutes later, and then hopped onto the front of my car, pecking at my windshield. It felt very unusual, but I shrugged it off and left to meet my friends.

Later that evening, I returned home and headed to my spore print station in my basement. I had gone hiking the day before, and had collected one mushroom to make a print of. As I lifted the cap, I could not believe what I saw on the paper.

Some believe that birds bring signals from the spiritual world, and that a cardinal sighting is a loved one who has passed away and is returning for a visit. During that time, I had not lost anyone close to me, so that interpretation did not fit for me. Over the past 4 or 5 years of my life, I have experienced some unexplainable synchronicities, and my cardinal spore print encounter has felt like one of the most mysteriously serendipitous signs. I interpret the whole experience as a meaningful coincidence that has allowed me to know I am on the right path. Maybe the meaning will change for me over time, but for now, I will continue to traverse the woods, observing the beautiful and mysterious fungi along the way.

*The writer is Agraria’s Education Administrator.