The Largest Living Organism Is a Giant Honey Mushroom Fungus that Covers 3.4 Miles.

Anyone up for risotto? You could feed the world’s hungry with this bad boy I reckon. The honey mushroom is well known for it’s ability to grow to huge scales but nobody expected to find one of this size!

What The Fact?

In August 2000, researchers had become concerned with how and why large groves of evergreen trees in the Malheur National Forest had begun to die.  When they cut into the trees, they found that many of them had become infected with mycelia, the vegetative part of fungi through which it absorbs nutrients from it’s environment. The researchers took samples of the mycelia back to the labs for further analysis but what they found was truly staggering.  The DNA from most of the samples proved that they were from the same, single organism; a massive honey mushroom fungus (Armillaria ostoyae).

Not as big!

After more testing they found that this monumental mushy covers an area of 3.4 miles (2,200 hectares), is around 2,400 years old and weighs approximately 605 tonnes. And I thought that those giant mushrooms in Super Mario were big!

How Did it Get So Big?

I was hoping to find a satellite image of the monster but it turns out that even if you were to go traipsing through the Malheur Forest yourself, the chances are you’d miss it.

Although the fungus is considered a single organism, it’s not just one whacking great mushroom, it’s several thousand mushroom that mostly join up under the ground.  In fact, underground is where the majority of the beast’s mass remains until summer when the typical golden-brown capped stems burst up.  The reason this particular specimen has gotten so large is suspected to be because of the arid climate it lives in.  The dry environment makes it difficult for new spores to settle in which gives this gargantuan more room to spread.

Have You Ever Tried One?

I’m lead to believe that these are edible though I’m not sure I’d give it a gomyself!  If you’ve ever knocked up a quick stir fry with one of these let us know.  Are they any good?