Bioluminescence is with me as I consider my need to seed. I suppose we emit warm light, unlike luminous bacteria, glow--worms, and lightning- bugs. Now, I learn there is a fungi that, also, emits light.
This is from the Encyclopedia of Mushrooms, published in 1983. I read of it in John Hay's In the Company of Light.
"We can, at present, only guess at the biological significance, if any, of luminosity. It has been suggested that luminous fruiting bodies attract insects which aid in spore dispersal by carrying spores on their wings and bodies. However, in many fungi luminosity is especially well developed in young colonies and it is difficult to see what advantages this may have for dispersal, or indeed any other process. Furthermore, there is still some doubt as to how fungi emit light, though it is assumed that the same mechanism operates as occurs in the luminous bacteria, the glow-worms and the fire-flies.
In these a chemical called, appropriately, luciferin reacts with an enzyme, luciferase, which alters the form of this phosphate-rich compound and in the process light is emitted. The light produced by fungi behaves similarly to other light waves, in that it will not penetrate cardboard or other opaque materials. This is of interest in the that Stinkhorn (Phallis impundicus) also produces radiations, which though non-luminous, will penetrate through a cardboard box and activate a photographic plate contained inside."
Hmmm! I think of Milton's Lucifer in Paradise Lost. What light was he playing with? Cool light? Warm? Penetrating? Not?
Notice your response to light today. Are you like the flower following the passage of sun across the day, or do you sit in the shade, a violet, softly lilting in the luxury and necessity of play?