Critters and Spectacles

Humongous Fungus

On April 2, 1992, the non-mycological world first became aware of very large fungi, thanks to the efforts of Myron Smith, Johann Bruhn, and Jim Anderson. They published a landmark article in Nature (Smith , M., J. Bruhn and J. Anderson, 1992). The fungus Armillaria bulbosa is among the largest and oldest living organisms. Nature 356:428-431...the clone was found to be at least 1500 years old and weigh at least 9,700 kg (more than 21,000 pounds or 100 tons), close to the mass of an adult blue whale.

Source: Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month April 2002 That's a Humongous Fungus! And the town of Crystal Falls, Michigan has celebrated the Humongous Fungus Festival every year since the Nature publication. What fun. Bring the kids. But don't expect to see the fungus, because the greatest part of it is underground. You might see some mushrooms (made from the H.F.'s hyphae) poking up from the ground, though.

Full disclosure: I first heard about this on this weekend's episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on NPR. By the way, I highly recommend you listen to the final segment of this weeks's show (Panelist Predictions), especially Mo Rocca's prediction of the next ice cream flavor to be named after a presidential candidate. Oh my...

Posted by natalie at July 2, 2003 9:35 PM | TrackBack