Bioluminescent (luminous) mushrooms: types and causes of glow. Glowing mushrooms Animal eyes glowing in the dark

The emission of light by living organisms is a frequent phenomenon and mushroom kingdom there is also something to illuminate the darkness of the forest. glowing mushrooms inhabit not only tropical thickets, but are also found in middle lane. The mechanisms of this glow (bioluminescence) and its biological feasibility are under study.

Variety of luminous species

The world already knows 71 species glowing mushrooms. Light can come from both the fruiting body of the fungus and from its mycelium. AT temperate latitudes only the mycelium of some species glows - for example, honey agaric Armillaria mellea. Threads of mycelium, penetrating the dead wood of stumps and deadwood, in the dark emit an even white, slightly greenish light. Sometimes old fruiting bodies of milk mushrooms and russula can flicker - in the event that small mushrooms of the Collybia genus (Collybia) with a luminous mycelium settle on them.

In broad-leaved beech forests, the mycelium of the club-shaped branched marsupial fungi Xylaria emits a yellow-green light, and further south, at the foot of old olive trees, the bioluminescent fungus Pleurotus (Agaricus) olearius radiates. While he is alive, not only the bottom of his hat glows, but also its top and even the stem.

In the tropics, there are more mushroom "bulbs" and their glow is brighter. Thus, the tinder fungus Polyporus noctilucens growing in Angola is visible in the dark at a distance of 20 meters, and in its light you can read. The Brazilian luminous mushroom Neonothopanus gardneri does not lag behind in terms of radiation intensity, which locals called "flor de coco" ("palm blossom"), and the kids use it for exciting evening games with bright green mushroom "lanterns". Small tropical species of Mycena also emit an intense greenish-yellow glow: the species Poromycena manipularis is visible in the dark from a distance of more than 30 meters.

How to explain the glow effect

The exact chemical mechanism for the luminescence of mushrooms has not yet been established. It is quite reasonable to assume that this process is close to that which occurs in the bodies of fireflies: the enzyme luciferase helps the interaction of luciferin, oxygen and water, as a result of which a quantum of light is released. However, scientists are still not exactly sure which chemical compounds are involved in the reaction.

To the question "Why do mushrooms need light?" There is also no clear answer. The most common opinion is that the glow attracts insects that spread fungal spores and thereby help glowing mushrooms to develop new territories.

To test this hypothesis, in a night palm forest inhabited by Neonothopanus gardneri, Brazilian researchers set up a rubber mock mushroom with green LED lights. A record number of insects attracted by this dummy was recorded, and among them were wasps, and ants, and beetles, and flies that are really capable of being carriers of spores.

In addition, many luminous mushrooms in the tropics have a clear daily rhythm - during the day, when against the background sunlight it will not be possible to lure insects, the glow noticeably weakens, and at night, in the dark, it flares up.

Mysteriously flickering rotten mushrooms populated with mycelium, mushroom “lamps” in the olive groves of the Mediterranean, bright green tropical “light bulb mushrooms” have been sending their rays into the darkness of the night for centuries, and the complex chemistry and secret biology of this phenomenon are still waiting for their discoverers.

Kira Stoletova

There is such a thing as bioluminescence - the glow of living organisms. Glowing mushrooms are representatives of this phenomenon. Some species glow not only in the dark, but also during the day. Science gives different explanations for this phenomenon.

General information

Glowing mushrooms were first discovered in 1840 in Brazil. Then they disappeared, and over time, luminescent fruiting bodies were again found in the same place. Mentions of the phenomenon are found even in the works of Aristotle and the writer Pliny the Elder.

Among these species are many poisonous organisms. The sizes of mushrooms do not exceed 3 cm in diameter. The most common is Mycena (feed and decompose organic matter). Radiation is more often yellowish-green, but it can also be light blue, deep red, etc. They are found in the forests of Japan, South America, Brazil, Belize, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Southern Europe etc.

Causes of glow

More often, the entire fruiting body glows. In our latitudes, there are mushrooms that have light in their mycelium. Scientific studies have revealed conflicting reasons for the occurrence of this phenomenon:

1. Chemical reaction - the pigment luciferin and oxygen are involved in the process. The pigment oxidizes and causes a greenish glow.
2. Habitat.
3. Reproduction method - attract animals, on the wool of which spores fall and are carried by this method through the forest.
4. Warning method - light warns of the toxicity of fruiting bodies. But a defensive reaction is not always justified, because they can be edible.

The glow of most varieties is weak, it is visible only in the dark. But there are also mushrooms that, due to the flicker, are visible at a distance of 40 m. They are called Poromycena manipularis.

Radiation strength different types depends on such factors:

• duration of the life cycle;
• the age of the fruiting body - old mushrooms no longer glow, unlike young ones;
• temperatures - the most intense bioluminescence of these fungi is observed at 21˚С;
• the amount of oxygen - the less it is, the weaker the glow.

The most common types

Glowing mushrooms have recently been represented by 68 varieties. But every year their number increases. The most famous include the following:

1. Mycena luxaeterna - found near the Atlantic Ocean. They grow on the branches of trees. They are 0.8 cm in diameter. The leg is jelly-like. The name translates as "eternal light".
2. Mycena silvaelucens - found on the island of Borneo (Malaysia). Hat dimensions - 18 mm.
3. Mycena luxarboricola or "light on the tree" is a type of luminous mushroom, the first specimens of which were found in Brazil. Most common in Parana. Diameter 0.5 cm.
4. Pleurotus (Agaricus) olearius DC - grow in Southern Europe. They prefer places under old trees. The fruit bodies are large, the stem is thick, the hat is yellow-golden. Glow entirely.
5. Xylaria Hypoxylon L - grow on beech stumps. Glow gives mycelium. Branched fruits.
6. Armillaria mellea Vahl - the mycelium of this variety destroys wood. Light and dark threads of mycelium permeate the entire trunk. Because of the glow in the dark, it seems as if the radiation comes from the tree.
7. Gardneri Berk - found in Brazil. They grow on dead palm leaves.

Application

Glowing mushrooms are used in medicine.

Luminous dictiophora has healing properties - rare view growing in the jungle. According to the recipe of Count Alessandro Cagliostro, an elixir is prepared from it, for which the following ingredients are needed:

• 4 g dry chopped dictiophora;
• 200 g of vodka or cognac;

The medicine is insisted for 2 weeks. Take orally for 1 hour or 1 tbsp. l. 3 times a day 15 minutes before meals. It can help in the treatment of a variety of diseases:

• fights cancer cells
• gives the effect of rejuvenation;
• helps in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases;
• enhances potency.

To date, scientists from Russia, together with Brazilian and Japanese colleagues, have created mushrooms that glow with almost all the colors of the rainbow. Decorative lanterns made from such mushrooms, hanging from tree trunks or placed on the ground, can decorate gardens.

It is worth trying to grow a luminous mushroom with your own hands. To get a quality crop, you need good seedlings. Luminescent fruiting bodies are a rarity, so sticks with mycelium are bought at special enterprises or in stores. It must be remembered that in nature such species grow more often in the humid tropics. The mushroom picker will begin to bear fruit if an appropriate microclimate is created.

5 AMAZING GLOWING LIVING ORGANISMS

I found a luminous mushroom near Tver. Amazing Glowing Mushroom

Conclusion

Mushrooms that glow in the dark or ghost mushrooms are especially common in tropical forests. Some of their types give such strong radiation that they can be used as flashlights. Also, these organisms have medicinal properties.

The mycena mushroom Mycena Chlorophos is one of 71 species bioluminescent mushrooms that glow green. Bioluminescent mushrooms grow in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and are distinguished by a soft yellow-green glow.

Bioluminescence is due to a substance similar to that present in fireflies.

These neon green mushrooms, or Mycena chlorophos, appear during the rainy season in Japanese and Brazilian forests, scattering the floor with glowing spores. The glow of mushrooms is due to bioluminescence, one of the amazing reactions that occur in some plants and animals.

In 1840, the famous English botanist George Gardner described an unusual sight that he had to observe in Brazil: a group of boys played with a luminous object, which turned out to be a luminescent mushroom.

The children called it "coconut flower" and showed Gardner the place where the fungus grew, on fallen leaves at the base of a dwarf palm tree.

Gardner sent away unusual mushroom to England, where he received the description and name Agaricus gardneri. Since then, until 2009, scientists no longer encountered such mushrooms.

But now researchers from State University San Francisco (USA) managed to collect new specimens of the lost species and reclassify it. The mushroom was named Neonothopanus gardneri.

This species of eukaryotes glows so brightly in the dark that it can even read under these conditions. Scientists hope that a careful study of this fungus and its bioluminescent counterparts from other parts of the world will help answer the question of how and why mushrooms glow.

After studying the anatomy, physiology, and genetic origin of the fungus, San Francisco University staff determined that it should be placed in the genus Neonothopanus. According to scientists, it is extremely difficult to collect new specimens of this species - the search for this fungus requires a special approach and is fraught with great difficulties.

To see the green glow of the bioluminescent fungus, scientists had to wander through the forest at night during the new moon, while being very careful not to run into snakes and jaguars. Only digital cameras facilitated the situation, thanks to which scientists managed to detect luminous mushrooms.

Bioluminescence, or the ability of an organism to produce its own light, is a very widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom, which occurs due to a number of chemical processes. Scientists suggest that mushrooms should glow in much the same way as the well-known firefly beetles, i.e. thanks to the luciferin-luciferase mixture.

However, these compounds have not yet been found in mushrooms. In addition, it remains a mystery to scientists why fungi need such a mechanism. There are several assumptions, however, it has not yet been possible to confirm them.

not particularly numerous. They differ in organization and in the strength of the emitted light. In total, about 16 species are known, and most of them belong to the well-known type of hat mushrooms, consisting of a stem (hemp) and a hat - to the Agaricaceae family, to the subgenus Pleurotus. Among marsupials, S. exist in the genus Xylaria. In some, the fruits glow, especially the lower surface of the cap, in others only the vegetative organs that serve to feed the fungus, the so-called mycelium. Mushrooms of the first category live only in the south - in southern Europe, and even more of them in hot and tropical countries. In our climate, there are only those whose mycelium glows. Mushrooms (Armillaria mellea Vahl.) are an example of this kind of fungus. Their mycelium has the appearance of light and dark threads or ribbons, so-called. rhizomorph(see), which penetrate the tree, causing or contributing to its destruction. The rhizomorphs glow and condition with their presence tree glow. Here is the true cause of the phosphorescence of rotten and rotten wood (rotten wood). A fresh, healthy-looking tree glows less often, but here the reason for the glow is the same. Another mushroom with luminous mycelium is Xylaria Hypoxylon L., with club-shaped fruits branched like deer antlers, a frequent inhabitant of beech stumps, and its relative X. polymorpa Pers. Mycelium also causes the glow of fallen branches, leaves, moss, etc. Finally, old, rotten mushrooms, for example, russula and milk mushrooms, can glow, but not by themselves, but thanks to the small hat fungi living on them from the genus Collybia (C. tuberosa Bull and C. cirrhata Pers.). These fungi form small bodies from the mycelium, the so-called. sclerotia (see), which, both during their formation and during germination, emit phosphoric light. In most cases, however, it is not the mycelium that glows in mushrooms, but the fruits. The best known is Pleurotus (Agaricus) olearius DC., growing in southern Europe at the base of old trees, most often olives (Olea europaea). This is a rather large mushroom with a thick stem and a relatively small golden-yellowish cap; it glows only while alive, and the intensity of the glow gradually increases until the time of full development of the fungus, and then quickly falls. Glows not only under the hat, the so-called. hymenial plates, but also the stem and even, according to some observations, the surface of the cap. The mushroom cut into pieces still glows for quite a long time. Of the other luminous species of Pleurotus, Pl. Gardneri Berk., native to Brazil, where it grows on dead palm leaves, and is therefore called by the natives Flor de Coco. In the evening, children play with pieces of this luminous mushroom. Pi. ignus Rumph. and Pl noctilucens Lev. - from the East Indies, grow there on the trunks of old trees. There is also a luminous tinder fungus - Polyporus noctilucens Lagerh., from Angola, recently described by Lagerheim. Both the strength and the color of the light emitted by mushrooms are different. The intensity of phosphorescence varies not only with the type of fungus, but is not the same in the same species. different time life. Some, eg. at Pl. Gardneri, the light is so strong that it is easy to read with it. Glowing Polyporus annosus is visible in the dark at a distance of 20 meters. S. rotten (with mycelium of honey agarics) attract attention from a distance with their phosphorescent brilliance, calm, white, only with a greenish tinge. The mycelium of Xylaria glows more weakly, and its light is more green or greenish-yellow. Others have a pleasant bluish tint. Only live mushrooms can glow. Luminescence is not only inextricably linked with life, but a certain intensity of vital processes is necessary in order for it to be revealed. Organs that are at rest never glow, for example. in mushrooms, only the youngest parts of rhizomorphs glow - soft and white, while brown and hard ones, which have already passed to rest, no longer glow. The same is true of sclerotia - only those that are forming or, conversely, germinating, are capable of emitting light. The glow depends on the temperature. Mushrooms glow at a temperature not lower than 4 ° - 5 ° С and not higher than 50 ° С, and best of all at 25 ° - 30 ° С (Ludwig). For pl. olearius D C. - optimum 8° - 10°C, minimum 2°, maximum 50°C., above 50° no glow, but no life. The fungus shines the same whether it has grown in the dark or in the light, and Pl. olearins glows just as much during the day as it does at night. Of course, oxygen is necessary for the glow; the glow stops in an airless space, as well as in gases that do not support breathing (hydrogen, carbonic acid). In water containing air, the fungus glows, and in boiled water, the glow stops. The influence of oxygen indicates a connection between luminescence and respiration, and Fabre's experiments showed that a fungus in a luminous state releases more carbon dioxide than in a dark one. The same scientist further proved that the factors affecting respiration also affect the luminescence in the same direction, for example, a decrease in temperature or a decrease in oxygen in environment. However, the glow is not a direct consequence of increased breathing. There are mushrooms that breathe even more intensively, but they, nevertheless, do not glow. Glow is a specific feature some fungi, but the physicochemical basis of this process is still obscure. Some see it as a strictly intracellular (intracellular) process, a manifestation direct activity fungal protoplasm, others stand for the fact that the fungus secretes special substances that are easily oxidized by atmospheric oxygen and glow at the same time. Some researchers point out, in addition, the biological significance of the glow for the fungi themselves: the light attracts insects to the mushrooms at night, which contribute (supposedly) to the spread and dispersal of spores.

Literature, F. Ludwig, "Ueber die Phosphorescenz der Pilze und des Holzes" (1874); his own, "Lehrbuch der niederen Kryptogamen" (1892); E. Bourquelot, "Champignons" in "Dictionnaire de Physiologie" par Ch. Richte (vol. III, fasc. I - II, 1898).

G. Nadson.

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