Bioluminescent ghost fungus in Queensland, Australia Juergen Freund/naturepl.com
Why do some mushrooms glow in the dark? A study involving real bioluminescent mushrooms and fake ones with LED lights has added to the evidence that the glow attracts insects such as flies.
“The light serves to attract potential spore dispersers,” says at the University of California, Berkeley. These animals probably eat some of the spores, she says, but as mushrooms produce billions of spores, they can sacrifice some to help spread others more widely.
Very few studies have tried to test why some fungi glow. In 1981, John Sivinski…
