Glow-in-the-dark mushrooms have a newly discovered chemical to thank for their shine
You’re not tripping — these mushrooms really do glow. And now, we have a better idea how, thanks to a study published today in the journal Science Advances.
More than 100 years ago, a naturalist named George Gardner visited Brazil and saw children playing in the street with what he thought were giant fireflies. They turned out to not be insects, but big, glowing fungi that grow on rotting palm fronds. The species became known as Neonothopanus gardneri.
Recently, scientists discovered why the mushrooms glow. They planted faux-fungi lit by LEDs in the Brazilian Coconut Forest and saw that the nighttime luminescence attracts beetles, flies, wasps, and ants like, well, moths to a flame (sorry). These insects are key for spreading the…
