Shillong, May 11: A team of scientists from India and China have found a new species of mushrooms in Meghalaya’s Krang Shuri and Mawlynnon. What is so special about them? The special characteristic these mushrooms possess is that they glow in the dark! The scientific name for these mushrooms is Roridomyces phyllostachydis.
How did they find this species?
People from the Balipara Foundation (an NGO in Assam) and Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated to find out more about the fungal biodiversity of the four north-eastern states. The four north eastern states were Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. In Meghalaya, they found this mushroom. It was found growing on dead bamboo.
The locals use these mushrooms as torches as they emit a green light! Before this, India had never found any mushroom which belonged to the Roridomyces genus.
-News by Shreya Agarwal
Do you know why they glow? This is because of something called ‘bioluminescence’. It is the ability of a living thing to create and emit light. How do they emit light? Light is emitted by the chemical reactions which occur inside the living thing’s body.
