What are shining mushrooms?
About 14,000 mushroom species described there are at least 65 types of shining mushrooms. For light production, it is also called bioluminescence, pigment, known in general as luciferin, oxidized in the presence of enzyme, lucifherase, to form oxyluciferin and light. Shining mushrooms can be found in at least 16 different lines of mushrooms. Rather than any line that has a developing bioluminence independently, it is assumed that everyone comes from a bioluminescent common ancestor and numerous species have simply lost the ability to produce light.
Glowing mushrooms produce light 24 hours a day, even if they are clearly visible at night. Glowing mushrooms produce light for various reasons - some, attraction of animals to distract spores, others to attract insect predators that feed on them. Some shining mushrooms include honey sponge ( Armillaria mella ), jack o 'lantern sponge, melenea chlorophora , Myce citricolor , Luminiscent Panellus and others. In the tropics are the most numerous but can be found soé in mild areas. One forest in southern Brazil hides nine species, most in any place.
Historically, the appearance of shining mushrooms in the forest is called Foxfire at night. The accounts can be found in ancient Greek, Roman and Indian texts. Glowing mushrooms usually feed on lignin in trees and their mycellium (hair feed) are also bioluminescent, giving the fallen trees the appearance that they are packed in a shining blanket. Foxfire surrounds a lot of mythology. Glowing mushrooms were also very used as a source of light before electricity. They were used for light for digging tunnels and also used in the first submarine used in battle, Turtle , on the advice of Ben Franklin.
In modern times, shining coughs are sometimes associated with drug culture. This is probably not because drug users keep shining mushrooms more often than anyone else, but because one popular hallucinogenic drug isIn psilocybin mushrooms, which makes mushroom a popular motif. Glowing mushrooms therefore appear on posters with black light, which are used to entertain people who are high.