Largest Living Organism Is A Fungus 66
Makarand writes "A single enormous underground fungus found growing in a Canadian
forest and estimated to between 2000 and 8500 years old
could easily be
the largest known living organism on earth.
This fungus is believed to have begun its life
as a microscopic spore and then grown to cover
an area of around an area of 9.65 square kilometers.
That it is a single organism was confirmed by
collecting samples of the fungus from different
parts of the forest and observing their
reactions as they were grown together on
Petri dishes. Fungal growths have the
ability to distinguish their own growths
from other fungal individuals."
It thas been rumored.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It thas been rumored.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not a forest manager by any stretch of the imagination, but doesn't this seem wrong? So you come into forest that's been living in ecolibrium for thousands of years and decide... "Well, since were gonna be cutting lots o
Yes, but how many Volkswagen bugs... (Score:5, Funny)
whoa (Score:1)
Re:whoa (Score:2)
*hangs head in shame for knowing that*
=Smidge=
So, what did one moss say to another? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So, what did one moss say to another? (Score:1)
Q: Why did the mushroom go to the party?
A: Because he was a fun guy!
Re:So, what did one moss say to another? (Score:2)
Errr...
Since when is moss a fungus?
Re:So, what did one moss say to another? (Score:1, Funny)
Why, when it takes a lichen to you!
Um? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Um? (Score:1)
What verification is their that the giant fungus is not really a couple of dozen, slowly having developed and broken off from the original growth?
Does it have to be connected physically to be considered as one organism? Maybe it can exchange signal substances and show other behaviour indicating that it is one individual even if it is separated. Perhaps the earth it surrounds should be thought of as the blood vessels of this organism.
Re:Um? (Score:2)
Re:Um? (Score:5, Informative)
Even assuming you meant "intercellular," however, the story mentioned that the cells responded differently towards each other than they did towards "outsiders." If this is the case, then the cells must have some form of communication with the outside world, and with each other. Ergo, it's a single organism, since the cells communicate. Whether it's a fungus doesn't matter; whether it has cells that communicate with each other does.
Spores (Score:1)
This Petri Dish test proves nothing.
If you take a grapevine cuts and make a vineard on the opposite side of the valley - does it than follow that the Gallo vineries is the biggest living single organism in Napa?
Re:Um? (Score:2)
The important thing is that each cell can communicate with its neighbors, and has some role to play in a larger system.
Then why isn't an ant farm, or the city of New York, a single organism?
Why not? (Score:2)
Hmmm, time to go rent 'The Blob' (Score:1)
Isn't it a bit self-referential (Score:2)
Hah (Score:3, Informative)
But anyway, here's another story, seemingly on the same growth:
Armillaria in Oregon [vgspc.com]
Here's some information about this type of fungus:
Armillaria tree growth [forestry.ca]
X-Files (Score:1)
Jason
Re:X-Files (Score:1)
Oops, as I RTFA, I see that this particular fungus wasn't discovered until 2001. I'm pretty sure the episode you're talking about was from before this. It must have been based on previous reports of biggest-organism-title-holding fungi like this [go.com][abcnews] one, which sites a monster fu
And everbody thinks... (Score:1)
The fungus... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The fungus... (Score:1)
Re:The fungus... (Score:1)
Perhaps... (Score:1)
Re:Perhaps... (Score:1)
I'm sorry in advance (Score:1)
Seriously though, I know it sounds a little crazy but I wonded if this thing has any sort of rudimentary intelligence. I mean if it is 8500 years old it seems like it would have time to figure something out. I suppose it would need nerves though....
Aspen Trees (Score:3, Interesting)
Holy shite (Score:1)
Canadian Fungus (Score:1)
nice!
Standard units people! (Score:4, Funny)
The clone of Armillaria ostoyae--the tree-killing fungus that causes Armillaria root disease--covers an area of 9.65 square kilometres, about the size of 6000 hockey rinks or 1600 football fields.
Talk about frustrating. Hockey rinks? Football fields? I thought the standard unit of area was olympic-sized swimming pools now. Can journalists just not keep up?
--Dan
Re:Standard units people! (Score:1)
Re:Standard units people! (Score:1)
Re:Standard units people! (Score:2)
--Dan
Re:Standard units people! (Score:1)
Volume (Score:1)
Oh crap! (Score:2)
oldest? (Score:2)
That is quite old. Without bothering to research, I'd reckon that there aren't many living organisms older than that either.
Re:oldest? (Score:1)
"the oldest authenticated age of a downed tree is about 3,200 years"
Amoebas can sometimes be considered very old, as all they do is consume split consume split consume, they don't really die.
Re:oldest? (Score:1)
http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/intro.html
Creosote bush (Score:2)
isn't this an american fungus / forest? (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, the poster might not have read the article carefully and just sourced it as Ottawa, Ontario, taken from the first line.
Yes, but what about the DNA (Score:2)
-Sean
Re:Yes, but what about the DNA (Score:2)
Re:Yes, but what about the DNA (Score:2)
-Sean
Re:Yes, but what about the DNA (Score:1)
It used to be a fungus, now it's a bigger fungus (Score:4, Informative)
At the time of the original large fungus discoveries, I recall that the largest living organism was considered to be a tree. Actually, grove of aspen trees [216.239.39.100] that all shared the same roots.
When the aspen trees were discovered, they replaced some giant sequoia [orst.edu] which had long been considered both the largest and fastest growing organism on earth.
Canadian/American unit conversion (Score:4, Funny)
The typical American unit of area, the football field converts to the Canadian (metric?) unit of area, the hockey rink with a ratio of 6000hr/1600ff or 3.75 to 1
Very helpful information.
There's only one? (Score:1)
hm, ok... (Score:2)
Fungus (Score:1)
Ever see that movie Phatoms? (Score:2)
Re:But does it compare to the one at Redmond ... (Score:1)
-uso.