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

This article is in fact 10 years old my mistake, Thanks goes to inkslug

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

www.independent.co.uk

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 (

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 8/9/2010 by iforget]

I felt like posting this because I grow tired of all the doom and gloom at times. It is interesting how much we have to learn about life and all its myriad forms. If we could overlook the largest organism for so long what other surprises might await in things that we consider familiar and understood? Also there is the fact that whatever they might have told you size does matter!

www.independent.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

If this thing is even remotely hallucinagenic then I know where next years Burning Man is going to be held...

reply to post by iforget

I felt like posting this because I grow tired of all the doom and gloom at times.

Eeeek! And I thought this was DOOM and GLOOM!

This THING just doesn't die and grows and grows and grows like the Blob taking over and killing all the trees in it's path and and and...?

Ok, on the other hand it is kind of cool and since it doesn't include Iran, Obama, Israel, Russian forest fires ready to burn up a nuclear plant and leaves out North Korea and BP completely? Yeah, it's on the 'lighter side'!

Thanky!

peace

reply to post by silo13


Yeah, there are some scary fungi out there. I don't think that we are in much danger from this species though. Actually if you read the article I think this organism is the one in danger

Did you find any pictures ?
That would be great to see some ariel photos or something!
good thread by the way nice to have a break from the doom and gloom as you put it

reply to post by paradiselost333


The visible portions are normal looking edible mushroom its fruit so to speak and the effect on the trees upon which it feeds. So there isn't going to be a pic of some giant toadstool or anything.

reply to post by iforget



I should of thought of that, I was picturing some giant super mario mushroom or something.

It's right out of the "X Files".
Episode 6ABX21 titled "Field Trip"


x-files.wikia.com...

I actually read about this in one of my mycology classes back in my undergrad years. Technically, it isn't a mushroom, as a mushroom is the fruiting body of the mycelium. Apparently, this fungus growth has lead to a lot of theorizing about the ability of mycelia to help the environment to include cutting back on global warming and erosion. Anyway, thanks for bringing this to light. Mother nature sure is magical in its own little ways, sometimes not so little at all.

--airspoon

Amazing story, wished there was a picture of a giant mushroom the size of 1,666 football fields.

Still amazing story, hope they leave it alone and watch it rather than try to kill it.

They will probably like everything else.

reply to post by airspoon


thanks, you would think something that seems so simple would be easy to understand but the more you look the more you realize how little you understand anything.

I thought the fungus in Florida was the biggest and oldest living organism found. Let me do a quick google.

Well after google, I cannot seem to find it. I swear I read about it say 5 years ago. Oh well, it may have been the one in Oregon. Memory seems to be fading.

[edit on 9-8-2010 by Tyrannyispeace]

reply to post by iforget


I do find these organisms fascinating, however you are sighting a source that is ten years old!

You really should make it clear in your thread title or OP that this is not 'news' and instead just merely fascinating trivia that may have passed us by. Many of us have been aware of this organism and others like it for donkey years.

That said it makes you think about how amazing mother nature is. I'm sure scientific researchers in longevity has also been studying these mind-blowingly large organisms, because it would at least seem that they are not coded to have a particular lifespan, or at least a lifespan short enough for us to measure.

Shortly after becoming aware of these life forms I saw a horror movie that i think must have been inspired by them. If you can cope with Ben Affleck it's worth a look. It's an interesting premise about a monster from beneath us rather than one from the sky. It's called Phantoms and also stars Peter O'toole.

www.imdb.com...

I wonder how much this fungi has grown in the ten years since this article?

[edit on 9/8/10 by inkslug]

reply to post by Tyrannyispeace


I think there was a smaller version found years back I kinda skimmed over that part prolly what you are thinking of?

[edit on 8/9/2010 by iforget]

reply to post by inkslug

i dont disagree with you for the most part. I do think that this specimen is a newly found record holder.

reply to post by Tyrannyispeace


Either that, or you are really from a parallel earth! I smell a thread in there somewhere!

Second verse, same as the first.

Originally posted by iforget
reply to post by inkslug

 

i dont disagree with you for the most part. I do think that this specimen is a newly found record holder.

The article you are siting is dated August 2000. ten years and one day old!

2nd line.

[edit on 9/8/10 by inkslug]

reply to post by 0zzymand0s


I often feel as though I am from an entirely different dimension than those I converse with. Seriously though it is not a new species but I do believe it is a new record holder. Although I have been wrong plenty of times before

Originally posted by inkslug

Originally posted by iforget
reply to post by inkslug

 

i dont disagree with you for the most part. I do think that this specimen is a newly found record holder.

The article you are siting is dated August 2000. ten years and one day old!

2nd line.

[edit on 9/8/10 by inkslug]

my bad apologies to all, how I got into that one I couldn't tell you
thanks inkslug