Talk:Foxfire

Image
Can any photographers possible supply an image of this? --NEMT 14:05, 7 October 2006 (UTC) I have a better picture available; if I submit it, this'll be my first Wikipedia edit. I take it I need to upload it to wikimedia and then link it into the page? The picture lives at http://picasaweb.google.com/entropius/RandomPicturesOfStuff/photo#5093536928425939586, and the same thing photographed with flash is at http://picasaweb.google.com/entropius/RandomPicturesOfStuff/photo#5093538302815474322. Would both of these pictures be useful for the article, showing the object under external light and then only its glow? --72.211.155.160 07:26, 19 August 2007 (UTC)


 * An image was uploaded, which was replaced by another image, which was removed after 7 days due to the lack of a license. Then, a different image was added. I've re-added the first image also, so there are now two images. I think these two should be enough, so I've now removed the image request tag. -kotra (talk) 09:00, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

All images shown on this wikipedia page, only show luminescence from mushrooms, but foxfire usually is not about that, but about wood, twigs or leafs glowing.

Firefox
Why is there a link to Firefox, in the See Also section? Miuq (talk) 02:26, 7 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Good question. I removed it.  Gh5046 (talk) 05:24, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Does not explain where the term itself comes from
Can anybody explain the origin for the word itself? I'm especially curious about the "Fox" part.
 * Just a guess, but I'd bet it has to do with the Japanese legend of the Kitsune who could create blue or green fire from their paws... This was called foxfire. I'd be willing to bet that the fungus, in the black night, looked a lot like that. 65.191.181.113 (talk) 15:39, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Not likely, since the term has been around a lot longer than regular English contact with Japan. According to, it is actually a corruption of faux-fire, where faux is French for "false" or "fake." That seems a lot more likely, however that site doesn't provide any refs either ... -- 202.63.39.58 (talk) 16:44, 6 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I found something here, relating foxfire to "faux fire", or fire/light without heat, but I'm not sure if it is a reliable source.Sesamehoneytart (talk) 02:10, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Without disputing the "faux fire" explanation above, and I have no references for this, only personal anecdates, but I understood that where the term is used in the Southern of the United States it is a corruption of "phosphor", as contained in "phosphorescence" (neither of which could your average redneck pronounce correctly anyway). 58.166.120.215 (talk) 06:23, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Some legends about foxfire
I removed this link because the article it refers to contains no legends, merely asserts that they exist without any supporting citations. The Lesser Merlin (talk) 08:07, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough. But I came to this page to learn about the legends, which certainly do exist. And even if the original source of "fox" here was a French form of "faux", the English name "fox fire" was probably encouraged by the idea of foxes as clever misleading animals in the woods. That idea goes back long before Europeans were aware of the Japanese kitsune, as noted in other commens, I have no sources for this though. Does someone have some? Colin McLarty (talk) 10:29, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Aristotle
The article currently says that in notes from Aristotle from the year 382 BC, foxfire would be referenced. It's unlikely that such notes exist, as Aristotle was about 2 years old at the time. Icek~enwiki (talk) 23:53, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Not all bioluminescence is equal
I removed a note claiming fireflies' bioluminescence and foxfire were caused by "one substance". Article body already says "a luciferase, an oxidative enzyme, which emits light as it reacts with a luciferin" (emphasis added), but maybe it should be made explicit that these are generic terms, not a single enzyme and a single substrate. See e.g. : "The luminescent substances from fungi are completely different from those found in fireflies." 2601:601:8601:1C89:3C25:EDE6:F072:7474 (talk) 00:29, 20 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added tag to http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/sub_turtle.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130507020951/http://warnell.forestry.uga.edu/service/library/for99-021/for99-021.pdf to http://warnell.forestry.uga.edu/service/library/for99-021/for99-021.pdf

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Casio G-Shock watches
Several Casio G-Shock models (DW-5600, DW-6900 and some others with electro-luminescent backlight) for the domestic Japanese market have a "FOXFIRE" (or "FOX FIRE") label instead of "ILLUMINATOR". Siealex (talk) 21:20, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Need to add distribution.
We need to add the location of where this stuff grows. Does it grow only in North America? Is it natural habitat in Asia? Rich Kutney (talk) 06:56, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

The Japanese reference for fox fire without citation
One such reference for the fox(as in the animal) and fire connection is kitsunebi (literally fox fire) as described in this wiki article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsunebi 94.191.154.14 (talk) 12:18, 6 July 2022 (UTC)