Bioluminescent Mushrooms in the Sierra Nevada Foothills that may harm your tree

Who doesn’t love things that glow in the dark?

Eldorado County, Placer County, Sacramento county, and the greater region home to some home to a few bioluminescent fungi that actually can impact the structural integrity of trees. Recently a paper described how different lineages of fungi produce bioluminescence via the same mechanism (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22495263/). Regardless of how they glow, Eldorado County, Placer County, Sacramento county, and the greater region home to some home to a few bioluminescent fungi that actually can impact the structural integrity of trees. Here are lookout for if you are a nature nerd or concerned about trees that could damage your property.

Omphalotus olivascens (Jack-O’-Lantern Mushroom): This species is dull orange, with gills running down the stem, fruiting mostly from the base or lower section of Interior Live Oaks (Quercus wislizeni) or on dead oaks. This is a white rot species, which degrade lignin in secondary xylem. Since this is a basal decay of a frequently multi-stem trees, it can degrade structural strength in an area of the tree which bear all the forces acting on the tree (Gravity and Wind mostly). This species doesn’t affect the outward tree health, so looking at the canopy provides little clue to the extant of decay.

Armillaria mellea (Honey Mushroom): This species has bioluminescent mycelia, but not fruiting bodies. the glowing from logs filled with Armillaria mycelia. was colloquially known as Fox Fire.. This species has a pale brown cap, with white gills, an skirt around the stalk, and growing in clusters from the base of trees or roots. This species is known for being an aggressive pathogen of trees, as it one of the few mushroom forming species that can actually survive in the cambium (its generally much too wet for many basidiomycetes). A tree hosting Armillaria will frequently show signs of decline in the canopy and cause structural failure as well.