Numlock Sunday: Krista Langlois on the funky science of bioluminescent mushrooms

Photo by Phoenix Han on Unsplash

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Krista Langlois who wrote Glowing from Within for bioGraphic. Here’s what I wrote about it:

Fungi have been a relatively understudied kingdom when it comes to bioluminescence, and it’s thought that mushrooms that emit their own light might be more common than currently held. Less than one percent of the 14,000 identified mushroom species — some 125 species — are known to luminesce, but that’s probably an undercount since many mushrooms only luminesce under certain conditions, such as at night. At least 40 new species of bioluminescent fungi have been found in the past decade, and given that some mushrooms only grow underground, it’s also possible we just haven’t seen others do it yet.

We spoke about the mushroom moment we’re in right now, why bioluminescence is so unique and how must we still have to learn about fungi.

Krista can be found at bioGraphic and on BlueSky at @cestmoila…