Courtesy Cassius V. Stevani/IQ-USP, Brazil

Neonothopanus gardneri, a bioluminescent mushroom

A species of bioluminescent mushroom that had escaped the world’s eye for almost two hundred years has been spotted in the forests of central Brazil by San Francisco State University researchers, according to a statement from the school Wednesday.

The rare mushroom – which “shines brightly enough to read by” – was first and last seen in 1840, when an English botanist witnessed a group of Brazilian boys playing with the curiously bright object. Researchers rediscovered the forgotten mushroom in 2009, and published their findings online last month.

Capturing specimens of the elusive mushroom was no easy task, says head researcher and so-called mushroom hunter Dennis Desjardin, who in the press release recalled going out "on new moon nights" and stumbling around "in the forest, running into trees.”

The term bioluminescence is a combination of two words -- the Greek word bios (“life”) and the Latin lumen (“light”). A variety of land and water organisms – such as jellyfish, insects and bacteria – also possess an intrinsic glow.

What, you may ask, makes a mushroom bioluminescent? The answer remains shrouded in mystery. Scientists hypothesize that fungi make their own light in the same way that their bioluminescent cousin the firefly does – by an interaction between a compound called luciferin and an enzyme called luciferase – although they have yet to identify either compound in fungi.

"We want to know how this happens, how it evolved, and if it evolved multiple times,” according to the statement from Desjardin, who has analyzed bioluminescent fungi from all over the world. “Each one of these is a fascinating question that we are close to answering," he said.

You can see video of the glowing mushroom here: