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![Mycena silvaelucens]()
Discovered on the bark of a standing tree in Borneo, Malaysia, this new glow-in-the-dark mushroom called Mycena silvaelucens emits a yellowish-green light throughout the day, though it's easier to see at night.![Mycena silvaelucens]()
Mycena silvaelucens was found on the bark of a standing tree at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Borneo, Malaysia. Each mushroom cap measures just over a half inch (18 mm) in diameter.![Mycena luxaeterna]()
Discovered in a forest in Sao Paulo, Brazil. this mushroom's caps are tiny, under a half inch (8 mm) in diameter, and the stems have a jelly-like structure.![Mycena luxaeterna]()
The species' name, which means "eternal light," was inspired by Mozart's "Requiem." Scientists still have many questions about such glow-in-the-dark fungi, including how and why they light up.![Mycena luxarboricola]()
This mushroom was collected from the bark of a living tree in an old growth Atlantic forest in Paraná, Brazil. Each cap measures less than 0.2 inches (5 mm) in diameter. (The species' name, which means "light dwelling on a tree," was also inspired by Mozart's "Requiem.")![Mycena luxarboricola]()
Three quarters of glowing mushrooms, including the newly identified species, belong to the Mycena genus, a group of mushrooms that feed off and decompose organic matter. "What interests us is that within Mycena, the luminescent species come from 16 different lineages, which suggests that luminescence evolved at a single point and some species later lost the ability to glow," said lead researcher Dennis Desjardin.Scientists Find New Species of Glowing Shrooms
Scientists have discovered a handful of new mushrooms that emit a bright, yellowish-green light 24 hours a day. They include four species new to science and three new reports of luminescence in known species. The freaky findings, reported today in the journal Mycologia, increases the number of aglow mushroom species from 64 to 71, shedding light on the evolution of luminescence in nature. For more on this discovery, see the full story at LiveScience.
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- Scientists Find New Species of Glowing Shrooms
