Glowing fungi with an on-off system synchronized to their daily rhythms? It sounds implausible, but it’s true.
Some mushrooms evolved the ability to glow in the dark in order to attract insects to spread their spores, according to new research in the journal Current Biology.
Fungi are peculiar beings at the best of times. Once believed to be closely related to plants, they are now understood to be more closely related to animals.
Mushrooms, or fungal fruit bodies—the bit you see above ground—may be familiar to us all as food but in the real world mushroom-forming fungi only produce these fruit bodies under special conditions. The main body of the fungus exists largely out of sight as a colony of white thread-like hyphae growing through a food source, such as a piece of wood or leaf litter.
In some instances fungal colonies can be old and very large. A colony of Armillaria solidipes in the United States is estimated to cover 9.6km2 (about 3.7 square miles) and be thousands of years old.
Fruit Bodies and Sexual Progeny
