Nature, Mushrooms, & Chaos

It commonly grows in plant pots, feeding on decomposing matter in the soil (it’s saprotrophic). It wont harm your plants, so no worries about leaving it!

Confirming the ID: The mushrooms look yellow enough to distinguish it from the related species Leucocoprinus straminellus, which has paler mushrooms.

The caps should open up to reveal yellow gills. Once they do, cut one off and leave it on dark paper in a sealed container for about 24 hours. It should leave a white spore print on the paper.

If you had access to a microscope, the spores would shaped like an ellipse or almond-like, and would contain a large germ pore (L. Straminellus lacks this pore).

Ghost Fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis), GLOWING IN THE DARK!!!, family Omphalotaceae, Tasmania, Australia

As you may have noticed, this fungus is bioluminescent.

The normal coloring is whitish or brown.

Primarily distributed in southern Australia and Tasmania, but has occasionally been found elsewhere.

Grows on dead wood.

Miniature Landscape

We've known for decades now that the mycorrhizal network of fungal mycelium and plant roots is absolutely integral to the health of an ecosystem, both above and below the surface of the ground. Soil health depends on the work of decomposers breaking decaying matter down into its organic components, and on the addition of nitrogen by bacteria nestled in the roots of nitrogen-fixing plants. Plants, for their part, rely on their fungal partners to free up nutrients that would otherwise be inaccessible to them, and in return they give the fungi sugars created through photosynthesis.

This study, then, may seem like a redundancy to what we already know. However, it's important because it outlines the need for both ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular soil fungi, which connect with their plant partners in different ways, and the unique ways each fungal group benefits their local ecosystem. Moreover, it creates a concrete set of data we can point to when arguing that soil health and overall ecosystem biodiversity are necessary not only for habitat restoration, but climate resiliency.