Omphalotus illudens is also one of more than 40 species of bioluminescent fungi. illudens has been described as at first being afraid you’re going to die, then being afraid you’re not going to die, and finally, after several hours of abdominal pain and vomiting, you begin to feel better. Chanterelles are similarly colored, can occur around the same time of the year, and are good edibles. However, chanterelles are smaller in stature, have gills that are not well developed (appear more like veins), and usually grow solitarily on soil.Įxperiencing poisoning by O. Jack-O-Lanterns are attractive and have a pleasant odor, but are POISIONOUS! They are sometimes mistakenly eaten by people who think they are chanterelles. Underneath the cap are found similarly-colored narrow, decurrent (running down the stalk) gills, and a pale orange, thick stalk. The yellow-orange to orange cap is first convex in shape, becoming flat and then finally funnel-shaped with a margin that turns downward. The Jack-O-Lantern fungus produces large clusters of mushrooms around the bases of dead hardwood trees and stumps. They can also grow from buried roots. Omphalotus illudens is especially appropriate here in Champaign-Urbana since it is among the few mushrooms which display the “Illini orange” color. It gets its common name not only because of its bright pumpkin orange color and its occurrence around the time of Halloween, but also because it can exhibit an eerie glow known as bioluminescence-the production of light by a living organism-in this case, a fungus. The Jack-O-Lantern mushroom, Omphalotus illudens, is a common late-summer-to-fall mushroom of the midwestern and eastern United States. The Midwest and the East Coast have a couple of other species of glow-in-the-dark Omphalotus: illudens and olearius.Align image left align image center align image right If you slice them in half, the context, or inner flesh, is also orange. Our West Coast version is orange, with a greenish cast to their deep, “true” gills. Omphalotus species grow on and break down wood (although the wood may be buried in the ground). If you plan on hunting mushrooms for the table, it is worth your while to learn the differences between these two mushrooms. The toxins, similar to muscarine, present in a mistaken meal of Omphalotus may produce hallucinations (a plus for some), but will also open you, prodigiously, at both ends, for a not so fun time with fungus. Just bring it (and yourself) into a completely darkened room, or closet, and wait for your eyes to adjust.īe sure to not confuse it with the edible chanterelle, though, a mushroom that it superficially resembles. You can view it in the field, if you dare, or take it home for a somewhat tamer show. It glows most strongly at the peak of spore production (some claim to be able to read a newspaper by its light), so to view this effect for yourself, you want mushrooms in their prime… not too young, and not too old. On the West Coast, Omphalotus olivascens is our most spectacular bioluminescent mushroom. The “Jack-O-Lantern” mushroom gets its name not only because it’s orange like a pumpkin, but because, like a pumpkin carved and candled for Halloween, it provides its own light. Omphalotus olivascens - some have zoned gills
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