The largest living thing on Earth is mostly hidden from view
The world’s largest living thing is even bigger than a blue whale (which happens to be the largest animal living now).
Meet Armillaria ostoyae, or, as it’s nicknamed, the Humongous Fungus.
It’s an organism that covers 2,385 acres (almost 4 square miles) of the Malheur National Forest in Oregon.
But it’s a lot more harmful than the nickname might suggest: The Amarillia grows by feeding off of tree roots, leaching off of them and actually killing them, causing them to decay. So, in a forest, it has a good shot of growing to a massive size (at the cost of a few thousand acres of trees).
The fungus has a huge network of roots, called mycellia, that permeate below the ground of the forest. What shows up above ground are the mushrooms that get produced about once a year, according to the USDA. They usually pop up around the base of infected or newly-killed trees.
Here’s a map showing just how big the Humongous Fungus, highlighted in red, is compared to other, less humongous Armillaria (in yellow).
Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.
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