If you want to go the extra mile, you can also take a spore print! The color of the spore print is an important diagnostic character.
And, another mile, with a microscope you can photograph the spores at high magnification. The shape and size of the spores is another diagnostic character.
I think this is a nice image to describe the anatomy of a mushroom (Source):
When photographing, it is good to capture:
The cap
The gills
The volva
The ring around the stem (or absence of it)
If you want to go the extra mile, you can also take a spore print! The color of the spore print is an important diagnostic character.
And, another mile, with a microscope you can photograph the spores at high magnification. The shape and size of the spores is another diagnostic character.
Thank you for all the additional resources, this is great!
Incredible! I wish there was a wiki feature so that I could easily structure this into a nice little guide. Thanks for the contribution!