HUMONGOUS FUNGUS AMONG US THE LARGEST ORGANISM ON EARTH

What comes to mind when you think about the biggest organism on Earth? A huge animal, like an elephant or a blue whale, perhaps? Or what about towering trees like the mighty sequoias in California? It turns out that the largest organism on Earth is neither plant. It has large clumps of yellow-brown mushrooms above ground that are the “fruit” of the much larger organism that spreads across tree roots for miles below the surface. Scientists define an individual organism as having a “set of cells that are genetically identical and communicate to each other.” Since one colony of connected honey fungi in Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of Oregon has spread to the size 1,665 football fields and weighs up to 35,000 tons, it wins the title. This humongous fungus is also ancient. Scientists place it between 2,400-8,650 years old.