Glow-in-the-dark mushroom rediscovered after 170 years.

The bioluminescent shrooms had become a Brazilian legend of sorts. They were first spied in 1840 by an English botanist named George Gardner, who was alarmed after he saw some boys playing with a glowing object in the streets of Vila de Natividad, a village in the Goiás state in central Brazil. After that, no more sightings of the brightly glowing fungus had ever been reported.
The mushroom was nearly forgotten until 2002, when Brazilian chemist Cassius Stevani came across Gardner’s early reports. Then, in 2005, a breakthrough occurred. A pair of primatologists, Patricia Izar from São Paulo University in Brazil and Dorothy Fragaszy of the University of Georgia in Athens, were studying a band of monkeys deep in the Brazilian interior when they came across something mysterious glowing at the base of some palm trees.

Izar and Fragaszy scooped up specimens and contacted Stevani, who later confirmed that the mushrooms were indeed Gardner’s long lost species.

Read more here.

Glow-in-the-dark mushroom rediscovered after 170 years.

The bioluminescent shrooms had become a Brazilian legend of sorts. They were first spied in 1840 by an English botanist named George Gardner, who was alarmed after he saw some boys playing with a glowing object in the streets of Vila de Natividad, a village in the Goiás state in central Brazil. After that, no more sightings of the brightly glowing fungus had ever been reported.
The mushroom was nearly forgotten until 2002, when Brazilian chemist Cassius Stevani came across Gardner’s early reports. Then, in 2005, a breakthrough occurred. A pair of primatologists, Patricia Izar from São Paulo University in Brazil and Dorothy Fragaszy of the University of Georgia in Athens, were studying a band of monkeys deep in the Brazilian interior when they came across something mysterious glowing at the base of some palm trees.
Izar and Fragaszy scooped up specimens and contacted Stevani, who later confirmed that the mushrooms were indeed Gardner’s long lost species.
Read more here.

41 notes

Show

  1. blackinkpen reblogged this from unravelingtheuniverse
  2. vargdottir reblogged this from stressface
  3. ah-thenah reblogged this from unravelingtheuniverse
  4. charlielass reblogged this from soulsoftheearth and added:
    Glow-in-the-dark mushroom rediscovered after 170 years. The bioluminescent shrooms had become a Brazilian legend of...
  5. malignantclass reblogged this from sealinefox
  6. sealinefox reblogged this from unravelingtheuniverse
  7. unravelingtheuniverse reblogged this from meaningfulpatterns
  8. machineryofnature reblogged this from scholasticendeavors
  9. rotiferola reblogged this from stressface
  10. dayeti reblogged this from stressface
  11. kittytummies reblogged this from katchill and added:
    I’m so glad this is a thing.
  12. katchill reblogged this from stressface
  13. satan-oji reblogged this from tinystarkitten
  14. istirmyteawithcadmium reblogged this from stressface
  15. suchmarvelousthings reblogged this from stressface
  16. tinystarkitten reblogged this from karonhiake
  17. nature-loves-all reblogged this from aconyte
  18. meaningfulpatterns reblogged this from scholasticendeavors
  19. scholasticendeavors reblogged this from stressface
  20. aconyte reblogged this from stressface
  21. wayoverhere reblogged this from stressface
  22. txsmalls reblogged this from ichangedthenameofmy
  23. wizuda reblogged this from scienceandbitches
  24. scienceandbitches reblogged this from stressface
  25. ichangedthenameofmy reblogged this from stressface
  26. stressface posted this