Jack

Jack-O'-Lantern Mushrooms

The wet September rains encouraged October’s mushrooms to materialize overnight as if by magic. On nearly every tree stump in the forest, mushrooms are sprouting like warts on a witches’ nose.

One of these spectacular species, the Jack-O’-Lantern mushroom, first appears in September, but makes subsequent manifestations in October or even November of some years. It erupts around the bases of living trees, usually oaks. It is as bright orange as a pumpkin, but it is not only this similarity that has led to its common name. It also emits an eerie glow, reminiscent of the flickering, spooky light of a sputtering candle enclosed in a carved pumpkin head. In order to see that ghostly light, you must have a completely dark area, which is hard to find unless you are deep in an enchanted forest on a moonless night. Pick a mushroom and take it into a room in your house that can be completely darkened. Turn the mushroom upside down so that you can see its gills. Turn off the lights and wait a minute until your eyes adjust to the dark. Then you should be able to see the faint, haunting, greenish glow, as if the mushroom is casting a spell on your senses.

This dim green light is called bioluminescence, and is produced by relatively few organisms on earth. It is a chemical reaction that seems supernatural because it produces no heat. Instead, this light is cold as a corpse. Fireflies and their glowworm larvae are probably most famous for their bright bioluminescence, but a few fungi and bacteria also produce light. In addition, many marine animals and single-celled creatures are bioluminescent. Wade in the ocean on a truly dark night, and the swirls of water around your feet may sparkle like diamonds. If, however, you see the glowing outline of a sea monster, run! Most organisms use bioluminescence to find food or mates, but it is a mystery as to why a mushroom should glow.

Not only does the mushroom itself glow, but so too the entire fungal body of the Jack-O’-Lantern. A mushroom is just the above-ground part of the fungus that releases spores, similar to the way that a flower is just the reproductive part of the whole plant that releases seeds. Most of the fungus is made up of tiny strands that are buried in the earth, and the mat of these strands is called the mycelium. The mycelium grows throughout the ground and into the wood of the tree, and it also glows. Fragments of decaying, glowing wood with the fungus embedded in it are called touchwood, and this ghostly light is one of the types of foxfire (another is from electrical energy). Both the ancient Greeks and American Indians described glowing wood in dark, night forests. More recently, WWI soldiers added touchwood to their helmets to prevent collisions with each other in the pitch-black trenches.

Jack-O’-Lanterns are poisonous mushrooms. They can be confused with the edible chanterelles if you aren’t careful. Jack-O’-Lanterns grow in clusters at the base of living or dead trees. Their gills are unforked, narrow, numerous, and do not extend down the stalk. Chanterelles rarely grow in tight clusters, usually grow on the ground and not attached to wood, and the gills, if present, are forked and descend onto the stalk. You should definitely refer to a mushroom field guide if you pick and consume local chanterelles.

Now that few of us live in areas that are truly dark at night, and even fewer are out in the natural world after dark, most people have never been bewitched by bioluminescence. The dim light is difficult to photograph or record; instead, you must be present in order to experience it. Make a point of getting out at night to be transported by the subtle beauty of the natural world.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: (1) Jack-O’-Lantern Mushrooms growing at the base of an oak tree. (2) Gills of the Jack-O’-Lantern glow in the dark.

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