The Fluorescent Fungus

People who doesn’t know might think this would be like a ghost. A kind of fungi, which live in the damp places, can glow in the dark. There are fungus that grows in tropical forests Ribeira Valley National Park, close by Sao Pulo, Brazil that glows when the surrounding become dark. The fungus has the ability of Bioluminescent as a result of chemical reactions in it’s body that produce the green light.

That fungus are in the genus of Mycena. There are about 500 species of fungi that is under this genus, but just 33 percent that have the ability of Bioluminescent.

There are more than 10 species of Bioluminescent fungi recently found in Brazil since 2002, four of which were previously unknown species. This finding is the result of research conducted by Stevani Cassius, professor of chemistry at the University of Sao Paulo, Dennis Desjardin ,professor of mycology from the University of San Francisco California ,and Marina Capelari of the Institute of Botany Brazil.

fluorescent fungi

“This discovery has increased the number of fluorescent fungus, which are known since the 1970s, to be 30 percent more,” as Stevani said .