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I recall going on a hike through an unfamiliar park one time.
It was a conditioning hike, but wound up being tougher than expected. The heat was a bigger factor than we thought it would be, and we were somewhat out of shape, with our heavy packs.
So we're nearing our campsite - someplace up ahead, but the sun has set and it is a moonless night. Hard to follow the trail, although the terrain was almost flat now.
We stopped to take a break, and have some water. We were sure tired.
Then we saw them - little green glowing things, and they were sprinkled sparsely near the trail! They were worms of some kind. They were attracted to the sides of the trail, where people had disturbed the ground with their hiking boots.
In all my years of hiking, I never saw those glowing worms in any other park.
The greatest "glow" story I've heard is the one about a fighter pilot trying to find his way back to his carrier. It's now a moonless night, and his plane has been shot up rather badly. Also, he's very low on fuel.
The carrier has it's lights out to prevent becoming an easy target for submarines that might be in the area.
As he's approaching where the carrier should be, his electronics wink out, and he's left flying blindly with no lights on his displays/gauges.
He figures "that's it, I'll have to try and ditch in the ocean", but then he see's this faint green glowing ribbon up ahead of him, in the water.
If his instrument lights had stayed working, or the moon had risen already, he'd never have seen it. Only in near total darkness, could he see the faint glow of the photoplankton than have been stirred up by a very large ship's propellers.
He followed that phosphorescent green ribbon, right to his carrier, and landed. (When the carrier deck crew heard his engine, they turned on the landing lights).
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