Glowing mushrooms are sprouting across the South Coast - here's why

While some still elude my lens - like the famed glowing algae of Jervis Bay, and the Aurora Australis - I was thrilled to finally photograph another magical sight: ghost mushrooms.

A pocket of the glowing mushrooms has recently sprung up in coastal forest near Gerroa, and they're truly fascinating.

With the naked eye, they can be tricky to spot. But when you catch them on a long exposure, they're vivid, hypnotic, and just... wow.

At this point, I'm totally obsessed with these mushrooms.

Where do they like to grow? What causes the glow? And what are some top tips to find them?

Professor Brett Summerell, chief scientist of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, has offered some insight.

He said while mushrooms do grow year-round, the La Nina weather pattern of recent years has created a boom in mushroom growth in NSW forests.

"It's a combination of the fact we've had our La Nina, and it's also cooled off pretty quickly and sharply in terms of the weather conditions," he said.

"Mushrooms are a decay fungus... you often see them in rainforests and wet eucalyptus forests and the like, breaking down timber and recycling it, basically.

"So they've really liked the last couple of years."

As for why the mushrooms glow?

Prof Summerell said scientists know which chemicals in the plant make the green glow happen - but there's no definitive answer on the purpose.

"It's not really well known why they do it at all," he said.

"It's presumed that it's a way in which the mushrooms can attract insects and other types of organisms that might spread their spores - like a pollinator scenario."

Prof Summerell has spent much of the autumn exploring forests and tracking down various species of mushrooms.

His top tip for finding ghost mushrooms: scout your location during the day, take down lots of information, and then return at night with your camera.

A bonus tip - don't eat the ghosties.

While the ghost mushrooms do look similar to the popular oyster mushrooms, Prof Summerell stressed the fact ghost mushrooms are toxic.

Keeping Prof Summerell's advice in mind, my quest to find even more glowing mushrooms will continue through the winter.

With any luck, I might happen upon some of the other glowing wonders along the way (also, any tips for catching that elusive bioluminescent algae are most welcome).

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