Natural Glowstick discovered in Alaska

When you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise...or at least that was the case for Alaskan local Samuel Holes. No, he didn’t encounter a teddy bears picnic, but he did stumble across a naturally occurring glowstick.

When out on a camping trip at the base of Thunder Mountain, Holes stumbled upon what looked to be an average four and a half foot stick, which upon closer inspection appeared to be glowing. The stick was in fact glowing bright green neon along the broken edges and on the inside. "I thought, I’m gonna keep it" Holes says and so he returned home to the town of Juneau with it.

Many would dismiss the story and simply pass it off as an eerie superstitious woodsman’s story, however local forest pathologist Paul Hennon confirmed "Turns out it’s not surprising, I heard a similar story about four or five years ago" he goes on to explain the phenomenon...

"The green glow is called bioluminescence, basically, its energy released by a fungus working to decompose the wood. There are a few types of locally residing fungi that release energy in the form of phosphorous, which in turn causes the material to radiate a greenish colour"

A term often associated with deep sea creatures, bioluminescence is a natural glow created as a bi-product of burning energy and is rarely strong enough on land to be seen. Hennon continues "The fungus is likely to be from the genus Armillaria, which prefers spruce and hemlock, but has also been found in alder. Their role is to recycle carbon and dead plant parts"

To you and me then it’s simply a decaying stick with a groovy glow, but to Holes, it’s an amazing find, he says "This is a one-in-a-million find for me, I've been in the woods camping for many, many years and I'm just so surprised to find something like this. I've been around for 52 years and I couldn't fathom a piece of wood glowing in the dark. But that's just what it was doing."

Next time you go to the woods, keep a look out for such cool finds, or if you’re a little less at one with nature, then get your glow from Glowsticks a little less natural, but way more fun!