Foxfire 9

by Foxfire Fund, Inc.

  PLATE 1 Time exposure taken of some foxfire glowing on decayed wood that Clyde Hollifield gave us.

  PLATE 2 Student Al Edwards taking the time exposure for the foxfire picture.

  These are the same qualities that have inspired authors to include this phenomenon in their literature to establish a mysterious, secretive, even a magical atmosphere. Mark Twain and Sterling North both used foxfire, in Huckleberry Finn and Rascal. In both cases foxfire was used because of its soft, yet exciting, luminous quality. In the book Rascal, for example, Sterling North described foxfire as “a real curiosity—a phosphorescent stump which gleamed at night, as luminescent as all the lightning bugs in the world—ghostly and terrifying to boys who saw it for the first time.”3 Mark Twain gives foxfire more practical qualities. In Huckleberry Finn, Tom and Huck plan to dig an escape tunnel into the cabin where the slave Jim is being held. They realize that a lantern would make too much light and might call attention to their activities: “What we must have is a lot of them rotten chunks that’s called foxfire, and just makes a soft kind of glow when you lay them in a dark place.”4

  After reading about foxfire in those books, I was still uncertain about it. I still did not know what foxfire really was. Many things in nature are luminescent. Certain kinds of saltwater fish, as well as the more obvious lightning bugs, glow in the dark. But what, exactly, is the thing called foxfire?

  A dictionary defines it as “an eerie phosphorescent light, the luminescence of decaying wood, any of various luminous fungi as Armillaria mellea that cause decaying wood to glow.”5 The book Ingenious Kingdom explains foxfire as “a faint luminescence that can be seen only on dark nights which is given off by several kinds of mushrooms, in some by mycelium, in others by the cap or gills, and only when these parts are young and fresh.”6

  The most common fungi responsible for foxfire are the Clitocybe illudens, Panus stypticus and Armillaria mellea. “These fungi are members of the Basidiomycete class which includes many types of gill fungi or mushrooms. These fungi are usually found in rich soil or on decaying logs. Many of the species are parasitic and grow within the tissues of their host.”7 However, one cannot see mushrooms actually growing on the wood that glows. Foxfire does not appear as a mushroom. It resembles instead a stain that has been applied to the wood.

  I discussed this with the biology teacher at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, Billy Joe Stiles, and we arrived at an explanation. When wood or a stump is decomposing, certain fungi or mushrooms grow within the wood to aid the decomposition process. All mushrooms start their lives in the form of spores, which later grow to what are called buttons, the young mushrooms. The dictionary defines a button as “an immature whole mushroom, one just before expansion of the [umbrella-shaped upper cap].”8 According to Mr. Stiles, these spores (numbering in hundreds of millions) can grow on a decomposing stump. These spores later grow into buttons, then eventually to full-grown mushrooms. Throughout this mushroom’s life, it lives off the wood or stump itself like a saprophyte. It is the mycelium (one mass of branching, threadlike filaments that form its main growing structure) of the young mushroom, or button, that glows—not the full-grown mushroom.

  Now that foxfire’s physical appearance was better understood, I was still confused about how decomposing wood and the fungi associated with it actually glow. I referred to botany and plant physiology books for an answer. According to those books, the light is the result of a complicated chemical reaction within the fungi pigment molecules. Phosphorescence is a product of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which a plant manufactures its own food. One book explained phosphorescence as the return of a luminous mushroom’s pigment molecules from a higher energy level, which is caused by light energy absorption, to its normal level.9 After studying this, I was still confused about what actually happens. I consulted with Clayton Croom, my physics teacher at Rabun County High School, and arrived at an answer. The process is started when light energy is absorbed by the fungi, either directly by sunlight or through ultraviolet rays, which, according to Mr. Croom, can penetrate wood, stumps, or soil to reach them. It is also possible for the excess energy left in a stump or piece of wood from a lifetime of absorbing light energy to be released in the form of phosphorescence as the stump decomposes if the correct fungi are present. When the proper fungi are present and conditions are right, decomposing wood glows. Therefore not every plant and not every piece of decomposing wood glows.

  According to the laws of physics, energy, whatever its origin, cannot be created or destroyed. This process is known as the conservation of energy.10 Consequently, the energy absorbed by the luminous fungus molecules must reappear again sometime in some form, such as light. When this energy is given off the luminous fungus as light, it is known as foxfire.

  CURT HABAN

  CLYDE HOLLIFIELD

  I’ve been pretty curious about foxfire the last four or five years. In Scotland and Ireland, foxfire was called fairy fire for obvious reasons. I don’t know where the term “foxfire” comes from, but I have a feeling that it’s an anglicized word. In Irish fairy tales and folklore, it’s usually called fairy fire or will-o’-the-wisp. Maybe they’re talking about swamp gas, foxfire or who knows what, but they call both by the same common name—will-o’-the-wisp or Jack of the little fire or Jack-with-a-lantern. Like a lot of Irish folklore, most of the stories I’ve seen didn’t deal with foxfire directly, but it was just part of the story. Irish fairy tales are kind of gruesome, a little bit bizarre, and the fairies aren’t to be trusted. The general story goes that somebody is going across the moors at night [and sees foxfire] and thinks it’s a cabin. They go toward it and end up falling in the lake and drowning or getting led off into the moors by this foxfire, fairy fire, will-o’-the-wisp, or whatever. So they didn’t think of it as a particularly good thing.

  The stories I’ve heard locally around here are mostly about somebody that had seen foxfire on a hunting trip. “We got up there in the woods and it was just a-glowing all the way to the top of the mountain.” That kind of thing.

  I’ll give you my own personal ideas about the little people that lived on top of the Smokies. I don’t know anyone else particularly that has the same feelings I have, but I know some Indian people that talk about the little people. This one Indian fellow I know talks about four different kinds [of little people]. [All of them] were white. Some little people lived on top of the mountains, some little people lived in broom sage, some in laurel thickets and some lived in deep woods. Fairy fire or foxfire may be [the little people’s] fire. It’s sort of underground, the opposite of our fire. Their fire is cold and blue; ours is hot and red. Theirs is wet, yet at the same time it’s burning, oxidizing wood and giving off light. Their fire is at the other end of the spectrum, sort of opposite our world. I think the literal translation of the Cherokees’ term was something like cold fire or fire that’s cold. All the phosphorescent lights, the Brown Mountain lights and all the others, have some Indian legends about their association with spirits and stuff. I think that’s one of the real magical qualities of these mountains. It’s just the fact that on summer nights they are glowing out there all over the mountainside. Lightning bugs, glowworms, mushrooms, foxfire, and a few Brown Mountain lights drifting through. So, who’s to say what’s an elf or a fairy if you see a light in the woods at night?

  PLATE 3 Clyde shows Wig how to dig at the roots of a rotten stump to find foxfire.

  To me, it has that elfin quality, that cool, blue-green lunar sort of elfin color. Most people, especially kids, seem really fascinated by it. When they see a chunk of foxfire, they take to it instantly and want to handle it or break it up. Foxfire is a real curious thing, which to me hints to the elfin world, but if foxfire is an elfin thing and if you mess with it, you’re very apt to come to the attention of the little people. You’ll be noticed if you play with something that’s in their element. Foxfire is just barely in our physical world. It’s more in their element. Not only is foxfire one of the r
eal mysteries and magic of these mountains, but also things like the Brown Mountain lights, things that nobody quite understands. I just wonder sometimes if these natural lights aren’t somehow connected to part of a larger phenomenon.

  At night when you dig around a stump, it will look like a castle, like deep openings and a light coming from deep down in the ground. All around the stump will look like a castle with a party going on inside. Once we pulled up an old stump and where the tree came out of the ground, it left a cavity and that cavity was just a city down there all lined with lights.

  At night, foxfire looks like a jewel and the next day it’s just rotten wood. That’s another reason I think of this stuff as sort of having a magical quality. It’s like those fairy tales of getting a pot of gold and the next day it turns out to be oak leaves or rotten logs.

  I remember the first time I saw foxfire. I was just a kid on a camping trip. Me and my cousin camped on Mackey’s Creek and we just happened to disturb a bunch of foxfire when we were getting firewood. It was just there. I looked at it more closely and sort of saw what wood it was in and what it looked like and where we dug it up. We just loaded up jars full of it and thought we’d have [the glow] from then on. The next night it didn’t glow at all and we were so disappointed. We thought as long as we kept it in that jar, it would glow.

  After we found that foxfire, we started trying to find out its life cycle and what it was. We realized pretty quickly the foxfire didn’t glow until you busted it up and let it have a chance to get to the air. There’s something about it having to oxidize. It takes four or five hours to start glowing.

  One time [near a creek bank], I saw all the oak leaves on the ground were glowing. If you turned ’em over, the whole ground was glowing. It was glowing all through the earth!

  Foxfire lasts a long time. We’ve gone camping and found it in big logs and it would still be there the next year. We even piled a bunch of foxfire up near a creek [we go to] and threw some logs on top. The next time we went back, it was all in the pile and still spreading.

  Two years ago, I cut some trees for the house [I was building here]. The [scraps] and small pieces of log have been laying around up on the hill and foxfire is beginning in them. Then the next year there’ll be more and more. In five or ten years those small poplar logs will just about have rotted away and maybe it will be just about solid foxfire.

  Recently we dug some on a creek over near Murphy [North Carolina] in Hayesville. The place was an old sawmill site. The sawmill was closed in 1928 and the logs have been laying there ever since. They’ve been rotting fifty years and will probably continue to rot another fifty.

  Foxfire is just barely visible, sort of faint. On moonlight nights, you can hardly see it. There’s too much light on a moonlit night to see it. If it’s lying on the ground, it looks like moonlight on dry leaves. Foxfire could be everywhere and you’d think it was moonlight scattered about. It takes a real pitch-black night to see it well.

  I think foxfire is barely within our range of vision on the blue-green end of the spectrum. When you can’t see it, it may still be glowing beyond our vision. That’s a thought. You can take a flashlight or a cigarette lighter or a red light and flash it on foxfire momentarily and it makes a sort of strobe light. It sorta jumps at you because of your eyes trying to compensate suddenly for a red light, then a moment of blindness before you can see the green light again. Your eyes are trying to go back between two drastically different wavelengths. It’s like looking at some signs that are painted in bold red and bold blue and they kinda vibrate a little. Foxfire kinda jumps a little bit in an unnatural way, like you wouldn’t expect. It does that sort of thing.

  I have no idea why foxfire glows. You could make a case for a lightning bug glowing for mating purposes, but why would that mushroom glow? Doesn’t make any sense. There’s at least three or four different mushrooms that are like foxfire. I used to think it was one mushroom that grew on poplar trees, but it’s at least three or four other ones that glow, too. The glow all looks the same. You can’t tell the difference in appearance. My interest is not only foxfire but all these bioluminescent things. I know at least a good half dozen or more things that glow like foxfire, glow all the same color. There’s big pink caterpillars and these little glowworms you see in the grass. There’s several different mushrooms themselves that glow, and of course lightning bugs. There’s some sort of light that drifts along through the woods, sort of like lightning bugs.

  In the middle of the summer, go along any little ol’ stream or creek where it’s good and damp and where there’s roots hanging over the creek and there’s an undercut. Stick your head down and look up under there. There’s almost always a little city of lights all up along the banks. It’s very tiny, whatever it is, and it has the ability to move like a little insect moves. You can jab around there with a stick and the little lights will move around, but you can only disturb them so much and they’ll move once or twice and then they’ll settle back down and they won’t move again. I’ve got down with a flashlight and tried to determine what they are, but they’re just so tiny [I couldn’t see them very well].

  Foxfire is a fungus and it’s very, very wet. It has skin around it like a membrane around wood that holds the water in. When you break it open to look at it, it starts to form another membrane down a little further.

  PLATE 4 Clyde points out the mushy texture and streaked surface of the wood in which the foxfire is found.

  You’ve got to break it up fairly small where air can get to it and dry the wood completely out. It’s so rotten and soppy you can squeeze water out of it. It has to be that wet or [foxfire] won’t grow there. Find where an old poplar tree or a white oak has died, is totally dead and the tree has fell over and the bark has fallen off and it has a real rotten stump. You’ll be able to tell by the bark and the color of the stump. The stump will be real super wet and mushy. Then you dig a couple of inches down in the ground and foxfire will be in the roots and up in the stump. You bust the whole thing up and the whole stump will be glowing. Even though foxfire’s not in contact with the ground, streaks of it will be going all up through the stump there. If there’s a big log laying on the ground, foxfire will be all over the bottom side. You can see foxfire anywhere that stays wet.

  Poplar seems to be the brightest and glows the quickest. Oak is a little less reliable. One time I found it in birch and it was really bright. I’ve never found it in walnut, pine, or any kind of fir tree—no kind of tarry or resin-producing tree. I’ve never found it in an evergreen. I’ve never found it in any super hard wood either except for oak. Most every time I’ve found it, it’s been in a light-colored wood like the poplar, beech and birch. I guess you might even find it in maple or ash or some of the other white woods, but I’ve never found it in any dark wood like red oak or black walnut. Oak seems to take a little longer to come on in the summertime. A good four hours for all of it to get glowing really bright, although sometimes you’ll find pieces that begin glowing sooner. Foxfire glows where the air hits it. If you take a big chunk and it’s glowing a little one night, you bust it up a little more the next night and bust it up some more the next night, and it will keep glowing on and on. If you dug some today, it would glow tonight and that’d be it [if you didn’t bust it up]. Basically it just glows one night, and foxfire doesn’t always perform for you one hundred percent. You have to gather about twice as much as you actually need.

  Practically every old rotten poplar log laying on the ground or just the stump has got [foxfire] in it. You can see a physical difference in the wood with just your eye. It has a certain look about it and it’s streaked-looking. It has black lines in it, looks a little bit like watermarks. When the wood has a streaked look of black lines and circles, it’s called spalling. If you look at [that wood] at night, the whole piece of wood won’t be glowing, only some of the inside circles. The more you break it up and mess with it, the more active [the foxfire] gets.

  In the wintertime, you can find [f
oxfire] underground, below where it might freeze. It doesn’t glow hot like it does in the summer. Foxfire seems to glow better in the summer. [In the winter] it takes three or four times as long to start glowing after you break it up. May take a day or two, but it’s just not as bright. It’s just a faint glow. Maybe the fungus is not growing as hard or something.

  I’ve seen [foxfire] of every consistency from hardwood all the way to something that is like jelly. Some oak will be very hard and then some poplar will be mushy. As the wood gets more and more rotten, it gets softer and softer, but it’s the same color of glow. The color doesn’t vary with the kind of wood. It seems to be the same.

  A neat thing to do with [foxfire] is to get a bucket of it and throw it in the creek above a waterfall, because water won’t make it go out. It’ll go over the waterfall and down in the side currents. Little bits and pieces will go for half mile down the creek. The whole creek will be lit up with little fragments of it running around and doing stuff; or you can hang it on leaves and branches, hang bits and pieces on a string in the woods, and it will be kind of dipping and moving all down through the woods but it goes out quicker because it gets more air.

  You can break up a piece in the woods, put it in water and keep it for a few days. When you take it out of the water, it will start glowing a few hours later. You can kind of delay [the glowing] if you want to use it for some purpose, like showing some kids or something. You can bring chunks of it and bury it in the ground beside your house and it will just stay there indefinitely. Every time you dig it up, it will glow a little more because you keep breaking it. You can get a log and bury it by your house and six months later, it’s still [glowing].