Lets Have A Quick Quiz,

what is the largest living organism on earth?

and how big is it? here is the clue, it is a killer of forests, devouring any trees that lives in its path, it is a humongous fungus, commonly called the “shoestring fungus” or “honey mushrooms”, (Armillaria ostoyae), this one lives in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, a giant fungus that has been around for at least 2,400 years, although some experts estimate that it is around 8000-years-old, the fungus covers an area of 2200 acres, or 3 square miles, making it the largest organism ever discovered, it began its life cycle as a single spore, too small to be seen by the naked eye, and is estimated to have been slowly spreading for at least the past two and a half millennia, the giant fungus spreads through the root system of the forest under which it resides and slowly kills whatever is in its path, making it not only the largest organism on the planet but also one of the most deadly, 

for a few weeks each autumn, the honey mushroom erupts in yellowish clusters with caps, gills and spores, but the rest of the year it takes the shape of a thin white layer, similar to latex paint, it is in this less conspicuous form, however, that the fungus is most lethal, as it can spread more easily through the trees,

trees often benefit from the presence of mushrooms at their roots, as the fungus helps move nutrients through the soil, honey mushrooms are not like other mushrooms, though, it spreads up under the tree bark and rots the roots, slowly sucking the life out of the tree over the course of decades, the trees attempt to fight the parasitic fungus by oozing pitch from their bark, but they are fighting a losing battle, “People don’t think of mushrooms killing trees,” Greg Filip, a pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service, told Oregon Public Broadcasting, “The fungus will grow all the way around the base of the tree and then kills all the tissues, it could be 20, 30, 50 years maybe before it finally dies, then there’s no movement of water or nutrients up and down the tree when that happens,” I wonder how big it will be in another 5,000 years time?