flamingcap said:

soon every household will replace electric lighting with fungal luminescence

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jcyril23 said:

ive seen these species before in NWP cali by tah coast, Really interesting during a trip...

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A tropical species from the Amazon in NWP Cali? Suuuuure. Must have been growing right next to those cold climate cubes.

Cap Stemson said:

We NEED to get some edible, psychoactive, glow in the dark shrooms. Talk about a sales pitch!

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motaman said:

Glow-in-the-dark mushrooms discovered
Freaky findings shed light on evolution of luminescence in nature
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
updated 1:01 p.m. ET, Mon., Oct . 5, 2009


A newly identified luminescent fungus called Mycena luxaeterna was discovered in a forest in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The mushroom caps are tiny, under a half inch (8 mm) in diameter and the stems have a jelly-like structure. The glow is easier to observe at night (right).


As if teensy night-lights were dangling from tree trunks and branches, glow-in-the-dark mushrooms illuminate the forests across the globe. Now, scientists have discovered several species of such radiant 'shrooms.

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.

The newly identified mushrooms, which emit a bright, yellowish-green light 24 hours a day, were found in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. They include four species new to science and three new reports of luminescence in known species.

"If daylight was not so bright you could see them during the day, but the greenish-yellow light does not stand out against daylight so we cannot visualize them," lead researcher Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University told LiveScience. "But take them into a dark room at any time of day, and wait until your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you'll see them glow very nicely."

Here are some of the highlights:

  Add Signature  Preview Reply  D4D0C8Found on sticks in an Atlantic forest habitat, Mycena luxaeterna is tiny, each cap spanning 0.3 inches (8mm) in diameter, with jelly-like stems. (The species' name, which means "eternal light," was inspired by Mozart's "Requiem.") One psychedelic-looking mushroom, called Mycena silvaelucens, was found on the bark of a standing tree at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Borneo, Malaysia. Each mushroom cap measuries just over a half inch (18 mm) in diameter. So-called Mycena luxarboricola was collected from the bark of a living tree in an old growth Atlantic forest in Paran?Brazil. Each cap measures less than 0.2 inches (5 mm) in diameter. (The species' name, which means "perpetual light," was also inspired by Mozart's "Requiem.")

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.



Brian Perry / University of Hawaii
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 (right).


"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," Desjardin said.

He and other scientists still have many questions about such glow-in-the-dark fungi, including how and why they light up. They know the luminescent process is similar to that of glowing bacteria and other luminescent organisms. For instance, the glowing involves a luciferin-luciferase mediated reaction that emits light in the presence of water and oxygen. But they are not sure of the exact chemical compounds involved in the reaction.

As for why, Desjardin says some fungi glow to lure in nocturnal animals that aid in the dispersal of the mushroom's spores, which are similar to seeds and are capable of growing into new organisms. Fungi, along with plants, animals and protists are considered eukaryotes by biologists, meaning "true kernel," due to the packaging of the genome into the membrane-bounded compartment called the nucleus. (Simple bacteria and archaea, which lack a cell nucleus, are considered prokaryotes.)

To date, Desjardin has discovered more than 200 new fungi species, including a phallic mushroom.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33179052/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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To date, Desjardin has discovered more than 200 new fungi species, including a phallic mushroom.

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New Species Of Phallus-shaped Mushroom Named After California Academy Of Sciences Scientist



ScienceDaily (June 15, 2009) — It's two inches long, grows on wood, and is shaped like a phallus. A new species of stinkhorn mushroom, Phallus drewesii, has been discovered on the African island of Sao Tome and graces the upcoming cover of the journal Mycologia. The mushroom is named after Robert Drewes, Curator of Herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences, and is described in the July/August issue by Professor Dennis Desjardin and Brian Perry of San Francisco State University.

Phallus drewesii belongs to a group of mushrooms known as stinkhorns which give off a foul, rotting meat odor. There are 28 other species of Phallus fungi worldwide, but this particular species is notable for its small size, white net-like stem, and brown spore-covered head. It is also the only Phallus species to curve downward instead of upward.

"The mushroom emerges from an egg and elongates over four hours," says Desjardin, who is also a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. "Its odor attracts flies who consume the spores and disperse them throughout the forest."

Desjardin and Perry named the new species after Drewes as an acknowledgment of his "inspiration and fortitude to initiate, coordinate and lead multiorganism biotic surveys on Sao Tome and Principe," according to the Mycologia paper.

"It's a wonderful honor and great fun to have this phallus-shaped fungus named after me," says Drewes. "I have been immortalized in the scientific record."

Phallus drewesii is not the first species to bear Drewes' name. A small moss frog native to South Africa (Arthroleptella drewesii) and a blind worm snake from Kenya (Leptotyphlops drewesi) were described in 1994 and 1996, respectively.

Over a span of forty years, Drewes has embarked on 36 expeditions to 19 African countries, where he has focused on the evolutionary relationships, natural history, and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles. Recently, he has turned his attention to Sao Tome and Principe, located in the Gulf of Guinea off Africa's west coast. Although it is a tiny nation - at 370 square miles, only about eight times the size of San Francisco - it hosts a number of plants, fungi, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians found nowhere else on Earth. Since 2001, Drewes has organized four multidisciplinary expeditions to the islands in an effort to document their biodiversity and gather data for conservation plans. Phallus drewesii was one of 225 fungus species that Desjardin and Perry collected during the 2006 and 2008 expeditions.

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