The amazing bioluminescent green Ghost Fungi

 Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are safe and well. It is late autumn here and the last few days have been wet and cold, so winter is on its way. 

Have you heard of the ghost fungi? I have photographed it before, but didn't know it's name and its unique characteristics until a couple of weeks ago. 

In fact it wasn't until I won the Dardanup Art Spectacular photography prize with this photo, you can see below, of a fungi that I took last year, that a fellow photographer told me it was a ghost fungi.  My original photo is on the left, and my adjusted, winning, photo is on the right. 

A large fungi, growing in overlapping clusters, they are found in southern Australia, and in our area grow around the base or on the trunks of Australian native peppermint trees (Agonis flexuosa), the fungi — omphalotus nidiformis — are bioluminescent, meaning they emit light.  from: Abc.net.au

Western Australian Aboriginal people referred to the ghost fungus as Chinga, meaning spirit. From: The Conversation.com

24-7 they glow a soft white light which you can see at night, but during the day you can't see this. It is at night when you use a slow shutter speed on your camera that you can capture the luminescent green light they emit. Truly amazing. These fungi were at my son's small acreage. 

How to capture this? You will have to go out at night, need a tripod or solid base to sit your camera and a remote shutter release cable. As these fungi typically grow close to the ground (though I have seen them in trees too), in order to see the underside I laid my camera on the ground. In fact I laid on the ground too. 

You will need to use manual settings and a slow shutter speed. 

According to my friend, I needed an exposure of 3 and a half minutes. I couldn't manage that with my camera (I've researched later how to do this). But I did manage to capture the green with a less slow shutter speed.

These are the settings I used: Aperture f6.3, ISO 640, Shutter speed 30 seconds. 

I laid my camera on the ground, shone a torch on the fungi, focussed the camera on the fungi, half pressed the remote shutter button, turned the light off, and then fully depressed the remote shutter button. The remote release is so you don't get camera shake from pressing the shutter button. 

The focus on this one is a bit out. It's tricky. I certainly need more practise. 

If you don't turn off the torch quick enough you will get something like this you see below. There is a bit of trial and error involved!

This one below I think was affected by moonlight filtering through the trees, whereas the first green one I shared was on the dark side of the trees, so much better colour. 

Focus is out, a bit blurry, and I didn't quite turn the torch off quick enough. 

Truly fascinating and worth playing some more another time. I am really looking forward to my next opportunity to photograph these at night. Unfortunately the fungi around here are collapsing and so just about finished for the year. So will make a note for next year. 

Why do they glow? Some scientists have hypothesised that the light attracts insects that spread mushrooms spores, but a 2016 study found this not to be the case with ghost mushrooms.

Ghost mushrooms are both parasitic, feeding off living tree tissue, and saprotrophic, meaning they eat dead things, in this case rotting wood.

Highly toxic, so please DON'T eat! 

Western Australian Peppermint trees where I found my ghost fungi

More information at:

ABC - Ghost mushroom hunters

The Conversation: The glowing ghost mushroom

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have you heard of ghost fungi before? 

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
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