Omphalotus nidiformis
Omphalotus nidiformis is a gilled basidiomycete mushroom most notable for its bioluminescent properties. It is known to be found primarily in southern Australia and Tasmania, but was reported from India in 2012 and 2018. The fan or funnel shaped fruit bodies are up to 30 cm across, with cream-coloured caps overlain with shades of orange, brown, purple, or bluish-black.
About Omphalotus nidiformis in brief
Omphalotus nidiformis is a gilled basidiomycete mushroom most notable for its bioluminescent properties. It is known to be found primarily in southern Australia and Tasmania, but was reported from India in 2012 and 2018. The fan or funnel shaped fruit bodies are up to 30 cm across, with cream-coloured caps overlain with shades of orange, brown, purple, or bluish-black. The white or cream gills run down the length of the stipe, which is up to 8 cm long and tapers in thickness to the base. The fungus is both saprotrophic and parasitic, and its fruit bodies generally found growing in overlapping clusters on a wide variety of dead or dying trees. Unlike oyster mushrooms, O. nidiformes is poisonous; while not lethal, its consumption leads to severe cramps and vomiting. The toxic properties of the mushroom are attributed to compounds called illudins. O. nodiformis was first described in 1844 by English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley. It was assigned its current name by Orson K. Miller, Jr. in 1994. Its epithet name is derived from the Latin nidus ‘nest’ and forma’shape’ or ‘form’, hence ‘nest shaped’ It was previously considered a member of the same genus, Pleurotus, and described under the former names PleurotUS nidominis or PleuroTus lampas.
The ghost fungus is one of several species in the cosmopolitan genus Omphalotus, all of which have biolums. The best known ghost fungus are the North American jack’lantern mushroom and the tsukiyaki tsuyaki mushroom, both of which are presumed to be related to the jack’lantern. The most closely related species is O. olanternus, found in Japan and eastern Asia and closely related to western jack‘lanterns in the U.S. and Canada. It has been found to be similar in appearance to the common edible oyster mushroom, but it is not the same species. It can be found in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Japan and the United States. It also grows in New Zealand and the UK, and has been reported in India and Japan. The mushroom has been described as a ‘ghost fungus’ in the past, but has not yet been formally named.
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This page is based on the article Omphalotus nidiformis published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
