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| As kids, most of us learned that at 110 feet long and up to 100 tons, the blue whale is the largest thing that ever lived. Later, many of us later found out that giant sequoias dwarf the largest blue whale, towering 275 feet tall and weighing in at 1,385 tons. |
These examples of Armillaria Ostoyae are identical to the mushrooms formed by what might be the world's largest organism. © Tom Volk |
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Now, imagine an Earthly organism that is measured in miles
and acres! Armillaria ostoyae, popularly known as
the honey mushroom, currently holds the title for largest
living thing. Its stats?
How can that possibly be? Armillaria ostoyae is a fungus that kills trees. In 1998, Catherine Parks, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in La Grande, Oregon, heard about a big tree die-off in the forest east of Prairie City, Oregon. The trees were dying from root rot, a disease caused by this fungus. Scientists took aerial photographs of the affected area to determine its extent, then took samples from the roots of diseased trees. DNA tests showed that all of the samples came from one huge individual that had been feasting on trees in this area for perhaps 2,400 years. Most of the mass of this humongous fungus is underground, which makes it hard to detect — and likely that there are even larger ones we have not yet discovered. |
Width = 3.5 miles across
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© 2001 American Museum of Natural History