Oregon's monster mushroom is world's biggest living thing

ok...so this is way cool..

just look at the size of this..wow!

photo is not real, but it came with the article..

this is a Mushroom that is taking over the whole area...

The largest living organism ever found has been discovered in an ancient American forest. The Armillaria ostoyae, popularly known as the honey mushroom, started from a single spore too small to see without a microscope. It has been spreading its black shoestring filaments, called rhizomorphs, through the forest for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees as it grows.
It now covers 2,200 acres (880 hectares) of the Malheur National Forest, in eastern Oregon. The outline of the giant fungus stretches 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) across, and it extends an average of three feet (one metre) into the ground. It covers an area as big as 1,665 football fields. The discovery came after Catherine Parks, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in La Grande, Oregon, in 1998 heard about a big tree die-off from root rot in the forest east of Prairie City.
Using aerial photos, Ms Parks staked out an area of dying trees and collected root samples from 112. She identified the fungus through DNA testing. Then, by comparing cultures of the fungus grown from the 112 samples, she determined that 61 were from the same organism, meaning a single fungus had grown bigger than anything anyone had ever described before. On the surface, the only evidence of the fungus are clumps of golden mushrooms that pop up in the autumn with the rain.
"They are edible, but they don't taste the best," said Tina Dreisbach, a botanist and mycologist with the US Forest Service in Corvallis, Oregon. "I would put lots of butter and garlic on them." Digging into the roots of an affected tree, something that looks like white latex paint can be seen. These are mats of mycelium, which draw water and carbohydrates from the tree to feed the fungus and interfere with the tree's absorption of water and nutrients. The long rhizomorphs that stretch into the soil invade tree roots through a combination of pressure and enzyme action. In 1992, another Armillaria ostoyae was found in Washington state covering 1,500 acres, near Mount Adams, making it the largest known organism at the time.
"We just decided to go out looking for one bigger than the last claim," said Gregory Filip, associate professor of integrated forest protection at Oregon State University, and an expert in Armillaria. "There hasn't been anything measured with any scientific technique that has shown any plant or animal to be larger than this." He said scientists want to learn to control Armillaria because it kills trees, but they also realise it has served a purpose in nature for millions of years.

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What the hell? I that thing real?!?! Looks a bit photoshoped..but i dont know!

reply to post by SkullAndBeats235


pretty sure it is a fake photo..

but if you go to the link you will see that it is still the worlds largest..

and it is still a HUGE mushroom!

Need a REALLY big steak to make steak and mushrooms with that baby!

Sure hope the Chinese don't find it...Gone!

Peace

Reminds me of the good old "Steinpilz"

reply to post by baddmove


Hmm been alive that long, stretches for miles, kills stuff with black tentacles... yep. We just discovered an alien life form and it landed in OREGON??!!

Damn S and F, this is eerily reminiscent of one of my personal favourite X-Files episodes. They get eaten by a carnivorous underground mushroom.

and yes the mushroom in the OP is underground.

Anyway struck a chord in me and I will be watching that episode tonight. Link below.

gorillavid.in...

Originally posted by SkullAndBeats235
What the hell? I that thing real?!?! Looks a bit photoshoped..but i dont know!

"Only his hairdresser knows"

reply to post by baddmove


I'm seeing a bright new future for mankind. Small groups of about 100 people can grow these mushrooms close to each other, we could hollow out the stem, add a few windows and a door (and a chimney) and call it a village.

For some reason it is preferable to only have 1 blond female per 100 men and everybody must wear white pants and white pointy hats at all times.........it will be wonderful folks!!

Thanks for the info Baddmove

Peace

Pffft,largest living thing.You haven't seen my Ex Mother Inlaw.

reply to post by baddmove


I'm not totally sure if this post is within the sites T&C's.
After all, you have posted on a very magical mushroom.
Like the above poster said, Grab the steaks!!

What about the largest single cell organism ?
Caulerpa is a green algae that can grow a whole metre in length . Not very big I hear you say ? lol .
Consider that it is 10,000 times the size of any other single cell organism and it kinda puts things into perspective

Nice thread.

That's crazy. There are likely many of these massive organisms that humans have not yet discovered. Thanks for posting!

reply to post by Murgatroid


^^

the mushroom in the picture is NOT the mushroom the article talks about. i THINK that mushroom is just a man made tourist attraction.

Looks quite fake, will have to look for further information if this is real or not :S

The largest organism is a mushroom COLONY, not that fake big mushroom pic