What that glow out there in the night? Its low to ground and has a slight green tint. You walk over to it, then shine your light. Then you realize it is a mushroom! That is caused by a property in some organism(living things) called “bioluminescent”. This causes the organism to glow green in complete darkness. This is done through a chemical reaction known as Chemiluminescence. Bioluminescent can occur in Plants, Bacteria, marine life, and Fungi. We will focus on Fungi.

Bioluminescent mushrooms can be found in temperate and tropical climates. And there are +100 different species of Bioluminescent mushrooms. ranging from all shapes and sizes, but they all glow the same color which is green. Interesting enough different parts of the mushroom will grow. Some species will have the stem/stripe to glow, others will have the cap or even the whole mushroom will glow. A few species will have the mycelium glow instead of the mushroom. And the light that come from mushrooms vary as well. So some are brighter than other, and usually the environment will need to be pinch black in order to see the color.

Here are 3 common bioluminescent mushrooms that are found in the united states.

Honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea) These mushrooms have a yellow brownish hue, these guys grow in clusters and found across north america. These mushroom are Bioluminescents, but emit a tiny bit of light. it not something most people can see in the forest, but they do glow.

Bitter Oyster mushroom (Panellus stipticus) is another bioluminescent mushroom that is found in north america. This mushroom grows and decaying tree trunks and logs. With an orange to brownish caps that grows in cluster. interesting enough these eastern varieties of mushroom are bioluminescent, but the western varieties are not.

Jack-O’-Lantern mushrooms (Omphalotus olearius) is another bioluminescent mushroom that grows in cluster with a vibrant orange and glows a blue green light at night. It is a common poisonous mushroom that looks similar to chicken of the woods or chanterelles.

Bioluminescent mushrooms are a very interesting set of species, because of their unique properties. And we discuss three common species found in north america. Now we know that bioluminescent mushrooms are nature night lights!