Glow in the dark mushrooms have been found on a bush track between Miner’s Rest and Creswick.
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Donna Crebbin was bushwalking by herself when she spotted the poisonous, fan-shaped mushrooms, known as ghost mushrooms.
“The ghost mushrooms are so elusive. It’s so addictive looking for them,” she said.
Donna and her friend, Suzie returned at night to take photos of the fungi.
“It was on Suzie’s bucket list to find them, she was looking for them for two years,” she said.
SLIDE TO SEE HOW THEY CHANGE FROM DAY TO NIGHT
In the daytime, the fungi are creamy white but at night they turn luminous green.
“The light produced is a byproduct of chemical reactions,” Teresa Lebel from the Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria said.
“This chemical pathway helps the mushrooms breakdown rotting wood into something they can use as nutrients.
“Scientists have been studying it for years but no one exactly knows why the mushrooms are luminescent.”
Because of the mild and wet summer, this year is a particularly good year for ghost mushrooms.