Have you ever seen a ghost ................mushroom?
Last time we did, we called the teenagers over we were camped near - come on guys, check these out! GLOW IN THE DARK MUSHROOMS! By their reaction, there wasn't mush-room in their lives for such awesomeness. They merely grunted: 'yeah, kinda cool' and left us to our freaking outness - man! glow in the dark 'shrooms! And I'm not even at Rainbow Serpent!
I'm not one to use pictures from the internet on my posts, but our photo was soooo lame - we only had a camera phone and to photograph these babies, you need a tripod and a better camera. Thus, all the photos you see here are not my own - but hey, ya gotta thank me for showing you they even exist, right?
https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmWVVDfoZMdbcJdTXvQfjsVXrcUcm8Kf49dweaG9CzP454
Photo taken by Ockert Le Roux
If you saw Omphalotus nidiformis during the day, they'd look like ordinary mushrooms. In fact, you're better off trying to find them during the day, because I don't know about you, but wandering around in a damp pine forest in the middle of the night is just a little bit freaky.
They did speculate that the bioluminscence might be to capture certain insects, but that wasn't the case, and they aren't even sure what beneficial these chemicals might have. Maybe they are purely to make me flip my lid - I was pretty excited to see these gorgeous mushies.
Just when I thought there wasn't mush-room in my life for any other cool things!
There's a place in South Australia that you can visit to spot them - it's called Ghost Mushroom Lane so if you're over that way, check it out. There's a place near us too, but if we told you, we'd have to kill you. Sppooooookkkyyyyyyy.
What's the coolest mushroom OR bioluminescent fabulousness you've seen? Please - drop them in the comments below and I'm bound to upvote the ones that thrill me to bits. I'm easily excitable.
I'm also totally honoured to be a passenger on the #ecotrain - check out this hashtag for some pretty amazing posts permaculture to meditation, environmental issues to food forests - I highly recommend checking out this tag as you're guaranteed of sweeeetness!
O wow, I didn't know about it.
They look really beautiful.
I think I will have to put them on my bucket list to see whenever I visit Australia.
Definately!!! You just have to be in the right place at the right time, but you know where now!
Wow pretty mushroom
Congratulation riverflows! Your post has appeared on the hot page after 0min with 52 votes.
Thanks to @souldelas.
Wonders. My first time on the hot page!
wuao never heard about the ghost mushroom, thank you very much for the information, very good! one vote please
Thankyou. I'm glad you enjoyed it. What do you mean by 'one vote please?' ...?
up
Hi @riverflows Interesting and beautiful your post.
After its initial discovery back in 1840, one of the most bioluminescent species of mushroom known to humans was not seen again until a pair of primatologists recently stumbled upon it in the Brazilian forests. Known as Neonothopanus gardneri, it's one of the 71 recognized species of bioluminescent mushrooms, out of 100,000 identified fungi species, and can grow up to three inches in diameter. Sometimes called "ghost mushrooms" due to their eerie appearance, they are also poisonous to humans, and glow so bright that one can use their green light to read a newspaper in a dark room.
They grow exclusively underground. Each node yields only one Ghost Mushroom with a relatively high respawn time compared to other herbs.
I'm wishing you success and growth, and happiness.
A hug
That's fascinating!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Do they look the same I wonder??
Hi @riverflows No, don't look the same, because the light produced is a byproduct of chemical reactions and this chemical pathway helps the mushrooms breakdown rotting wood into something they can use as nutrients. It is possible that the role of bioluminescence differs among evolutionary lineages of fungi and/or with attributes of their growth environments that could affect spore dispersal, such as wind and insect abundance.
Thank you too. Have a nice night and wish you lots of happiness.
A hug
Hugs to you as well!! You are a myocology expert it seems! That's so interesting! We're going out again to see if we can take someproper photos of them, so keep in touch!
Hi @riverflows I'm an Ecology and Environment Specialist. I find your writing fascinating. However, I will be very happy to analysing the Ghost Mushrooms with you. Cooperation in that sense means sharing information and best practices and being willing to learn from the experiences of others. So, I hope you enjoy your tour.
Thank you for your friendship...
Have a wonderful weekend, dear.
A big hug for you!!!
this is so super incredible @riverflows. It reminds me of the two person game "Morels". Have you ever played that ? There is a phantom mushroom that ruins your turn if you draw it.
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122298/morels
No way really!!! Thats cool... I want that game!!!!
it's fun !
you should come to Oregon and take a mycology course ! this is a mushroom haven !
If I smoke on of those will I glow in the dark too?
Well... my 7 year old nephew asked if we drank it would we glow in the dark.. the answer to both questions is that it's poisonous.. but for you specifically, let me know if it works and I'll upvote you all week!
Crazy!! I've never seen these, but we do have fireflies where I'm from (southeast U.S.) which I love and always remind me of home...
Oh I love fireflies. We have glowworms here! And sometimes, phospherance in the sea. There's something in these things that recalls the wide eyed wonder of childhood...
Oh yeah definitely! I was told some crazy story when I was a kid about glowworms making you get abducted by aliens and "forget" days so I was always pretty scared of them. Hahaha
Oh dear, that's kinda the saddest story I've heard all day, but terribly cute. You know, I'd be the kind of girl that would chase you around with glow worms going 'oooooooo' just for a laugh - he he he xx
Very cool now i will have to go looking for them :)
Get out there man!!! Have a look online and see if you can find a spot!!!! We're going out with a camera this weekend and trying to capture some photos....
Great i hope you find some and have fun out there.
How cool is that?? The nice thing is that I would pass by them all day without even knowing they glow during the night!
I did a quick research and it looks like they were kinda unknown in Brazil, it wasn't until the 2000' that some guys have started researching them, they found a especies called Gerronema viridilucens
Source. News in Portuguese
As I've read there are 71 especies in the World, 12 in Brazil... and I haven't seen any single one! Guess I'll have to do some nigh exploration hahahahha
Love, love you article. You brought something cool that I didn't know about.
Those are so cool!! I had no idea that existed.