The Rare Species of Mushroom discovered in Meghalaya are mysterious. Find out how??

Why this mushroom is different from all other mushrooms? Because of its glow or the way its emitting light in bright green. These mushrooms are a new variety that has been discovered in Northeast India’s Meghalaya state. Almost 600 varieties of bioluminescent mushroom have been found in the jungles of Meghalaya and because of its light-emitting nature, the newly found species has been named Roridomyces Phyllostachys.

 It was first sighted on a wet August night close to a water stream in Meghalaya’s Mawlynnong in East Khasi Hills district. Soon locals noticed the same variety of mushroom in Krang Shuri in the West Jaintia Hills district. It is now one among the 97 known species of bioluminescent fungi in the world.

An Assam-based conservation NGO Balipara Foundation collaborated with scientists from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences were on a project to evaluate the fungal biodiversity in Northeast India. Over the course of two weeks, they were amazed by the vast diversity of fungi in the region. Hundreds of species of fungi were spotted, some of which were new to science.

After asking local residents about any bioluminescent mushrooms around, they were surprised to hear about the glowing bamboo sticks which are used as natural torches to navigate the forest at night. With the help of villagers, they headed to the West Jaintia Hills District in Meghalaya. The locals guided the team to a bamboo forest, which is part of a community forest, and asked them to switch off their torches. A minute later, the scientists were awestruck by looking at the green light glowing amidst the forest, which emerged from dead bamboo sticks that were smothered in tiny mushrooms. Later, on closer examination, the team noticed that only the stipes (stalks) and the mycelia (thread-like strands) of the mushroom lit up and they suspected it could be a new species. A detailed examination in the laboratory had confirmed their suspicion: it was a new species from the genus Roridomyces – and the first fungus in this genus to be discovered from India.

The beige-coloured pileus [cap-like part] with brownish centre is not bioluminescent and why only the stipes is bioluminescent in this mushroom is still a mysterious fact. The strips are said to be glutinous, slimy and moist. The locals of Meghalaya had refrained from consuming the mushroom as they did not know if it is eatable or not. In the daytime, the tiny mushrooms, with a gap of around 3 mm to 15 mm in diameter, look ordinary, but at night, they look otherworldly.

The phenomenon known as bioluminescence has the ability to emit light is more common in animals dwelling in ocean environments than on land. Insects such as fireflies are renowned for their ability to glow but little is known about fungi. The emission of light occurs as a result of a chemical reaction in which the energy is released as light, typically green light. It is the first time that such a mushroom species has been found in India, so it’s extremely a rare case where these organisms have been found on land.

Rajesh Kumar, a scientist at the Rain Forest Research Institute in Jorhat, Assam said such mushrooms may glow for several reasons. “The simplest explanation could be that bioluminescence attracts insects, which helps in dispersing spores,” he said.

Samantha Karunarathna, Senior mycologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told a local newspaper, “The members of the genus Roridomyces are very fragile and they love moist and humid conditions.”

Of about 120,000 described fungi species around 100 are known to be bioluminescent or capable of emitting light. They have been found mainly in temperate and tropical regions in Europe, North and South America, Southeast Asia among others. Till today, very few glowing fungi species have been found in India. Two from the Western Ghats, one in Kerala, and one in the Eastern Ghats, among others. Glowing fungi have also been spotted in the forests of Maharashtra and Goa (part of the Western Ghats) but they have not been scientifically reported. India has so far documented only about 1900 species of mushroom-forming fungi from India. Karunarathna believes the actual number of bioluminescent fungi in India should be higher.

The research results were published in the botany journal Phytotaxa under the title “Roridomyces Phyllostachys (Agaricales, Mycenaceae), a new bioluminescent fungus from Northeast India”.