the.com/honey fungus
the largest living organism on Earth, quietly murdering forests one root at a time
means A parasitic fungus of the genus Armillaria that infects and kills trees by spreading through soil and roots, often producing clusters of honey-colored mushrooms above ground.
from The name simply describes the mushroom's warm, honey-brown caps — "honey" from Old English hunig, "fungus" straight from the Latin word for mushroom or sponge. A plain, almost cozy label for an organism whose root-creeping black threads, called rhizomorphs or "bootlaces," can stretch for miles underground; one specimen in Oregon's Blue Mountains sprawls across thousands of acres, which is how this honey-named killer earns its title as the largest known living thing.
- world record
- Oregon specimen spans 9 square kilometers
- age
- estimated 2,500 years old or more
- glows green
- its mycelium is bioluminescent in darkness
- forest killer
- strangles trees through underground black cords
- edible warning
- tasty cooked, but raw it sickens you
armillaria mellea — parasitic fungus that killed over 40,000 acres of forest in the malheur national forest, oregon
armillaria ostoyae in oregon — largest living organism on earth at malheur, covering 2,385 acres and weighing 600 tons