io9: mushrooms

Glow-in-the-Dark Mushrooms Shed Light on Luminescence

Lauren Davis — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:38:22 PDT

These mushrooms may not have any hallucinogenic properties, but they are psychedelic in their own right, emitting a yellow-green glow in the darkness. Seven new species of luminescent mushrooms give fungal enthusiasts new insight into mushrooms' glowing evolution.

Dennis Desjardin, a biology professor at San Francisco State University has, with his colleagues discovered seven new species of glowing mushrooms all over the world, from Belize and Brazil to Malaysia and Japan. Only four of the species were previously undiscovered; the other three species have been observed before, but luminescent varietals had never been noted. Desjardin named two of the new species from the Mycena genus Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) and Mycena luxperpetua (perpetual light), after sections from Mozart's Requiem, because these species glow 24 hours a day.

Desjardin believes that the mushrooms grow to attract nocturnal animals that will eat the caps and disperse the spores. But what is interesting is the variety of glowing mushrooms found among the Mycena genus. The luminescent species come from 16 different lineages of Mycena, and since not all Mycena species glow, he posits that luminescence evolved at a single point in Mycena's evolutionary history, and that later mushrooms lost the ability to glow.

[EurekaAlert]

Mycena luxaeterna
Mycena silvaelucens
Mycena luxarboricola

Don't Eat the Glowing Mushrooms

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:40:00 PST

You might already know about the glowing mushrooms of Japan. Every spring, the rains cause bioluminescent fungi to peep out from tree trunks and forest floors. For years scientists believed that these rare mushrooms grew nowhere else in the world. But now the glowers turn out to thrive in the forests of Brazil, too. Four new species like these, pictured, have been discovered there since 2002.

According to National Geographic:

The mushrooms are part of the genus Mycena, a group that includes about 500 species worldwide. Of these only 33 are known to be bioluminescent - capable of producing light through a chemical reaction.

In Japan, you can go on a nighttime tour in early summer to see the glowers. Generally, however, researchers prefer that crowds leave the green guys alone. They're rare, and tend to prefer areas with very little human habitation.

New Glowing Mushrooms Found in Brazil [via National Geographic]

The Gray Caps Will Take Over the World with Their Mushroom Brain Implants

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:30:53 PST

John Coulthart has just posted his cover design for the re-release of Jeff VanderMeer's novel, Shriek: An Afterword. This is the cover image, by Ben Templesmith — it shows a mysterious "gray cap," one of an oppressed underground people who have this bizarre mushroom tech that will allow them to take over a city. You can see the full glory of Coulthart's book cover below.

I love this design, with its webby typewriter look and abstract expressionist mutant. Here's a quick summary of VanderMeer's surreal tale:

Shriek: An Afterword relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies. Narrated with flamboyant intensity and under increasingly urgent conditions by ex-society figure Janice Shriek, this afterword presents a vivid gallery of characters and events, emphasizing the adventures of Janice's brother Duncan, a historian obsessed with a doomed love affair and a secret that may kill or transform him; a war between rival publishing houses that will change Ambergris forever; and the gray caps, a marginalized people armed with advanced fungal technologies who have been waiting underground for their chance to mold the future of the city.

You can buy the book here.

Fungal observations [Feuilleton]