Mushrooms are a special form of life that combines the characteristics of plants and animals. Among them there are record holders for height and weight. Biologists believe that giant mushrooms are not an anomaly. Any mushroom can become a giant if it grows in favorable conditions for it. And strangely enough, most of the largest mushrooms are edible, which by some miracle did not fall into the basket of the mushroom picker and were not eaten by animals.
The list includes the largest mushrooms in the world, which became known to the media.
10. Calvatia gigantea from England | weight 2 kg
Opens the top ten large mushrooms Calvatia gigantea from England. The record holder was discovered by a young gardener girl, Terry Hodson-Walker, after the rainy season. The width of the giant's hat was about 46 centimeters, and it weighed 2 kilograms. After the find, the girl decided to submit an application to the Guinness Book of Records, so that the macromycete was officially recognized as the largest mushroom in the world. The scientific name for the discovered fungus is Calvatia gigantea. This is an ordinary raincoat, which can be found almost all over the world. This species can reach enormous size, but often becomes a victim of forest animals, who are not averse to feasting on a raincoat.
9. Birch from Russia | weight 2.4 kg
Another contender for the title of the largest mushroom in the world -boletus from Russiadiscovered in the Tomsk region. The local mushroom picker Alexei Korol found a giant brown boletus in a forest near his village. The diameter of the head of the giant mushroom was 36 centimeters, and the leg height was 28 cm. The weight of the champion was 2 kilograms 400 grams! As the Rossiya TV channel noted, this is not some kind of alien mutant from outer space, but an ordinary boletus, not even a worm.
8. Lingzhi from China | weight 7.5 kg
Found a huge tinder funded, or, as it is called in China - lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) - weighs 7.5 kg, and its diameter - 107 cm. Found a find in one of the provincial Chinese cities of Hezhou. This mushroom belongs to the genus Ganoderma, which has been used in Chinese medicine for more than 2000 years. It is also called the “mushroom of immortality“. Lingzhi is believed to boost immunity thanks to active compounds called polysaccharides, which can increase white blood cell activity. The impressive dimensions and weight of the tinder fungus allow him to take one of the lines of the rating of the largest mushrooms in the world.
7. Raincoat from Russia | weight 12 kg
The largest mushroom in Russia is raincoatfound by mushroom picker Vladislav Grabosinsky in the fall of 2011 in the Perm Territory. The diameter of the giant's hat was 1 meter and 72 centimeters, and the height was about half a meter. The weight of the find exceeded 12 kilograms. Biologists do not consider this find rare. Raincoats grew and large sizes reaching 20 kg in weight. Raincoats are eaten when they are still young. Since the giant was already too late, Vladislav took him to study at the Department of Botany of Perm University. This edible miracle was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
6. Champignon from Italy | weight 14 kg
In Italy, a kind of record was also recorded. A huge champignon, weighing about 14 kilograms, was found by Francesco Quito, a resident of the province of Baria. Despite the fact that the mushroom was discovered near the village, Francesco could hardly carry it on his shoulder, so he had to use a car. The mushroom was unspoiled and edible. I had to call neighbors to eat such a giant.
5. Macromycete from China | weight 15 kg
A giant was discovered in the Chinese province of Yunnan macromyceteweighing 15 kilograms. The mushroom was not only huge, but also had an unusual shape. Outwardly, he resembled a hundred small mushroom caps growing on one leg! In the diameter of the cap, he reached almost 1 meter. What kind of species is an eccentric mushroom organism, scientists have not yet determined.
4. Macrocybe Titans from the USA | weight 20 kg
If we talk about traditional macromycetes in the usual sense, then the leader in size can be called Macrocybe Titansthat grows in the Caribbean and the USA. In 2007, a specimen was found in one of the southern Mexican states with a mass of 20 kg and a height of about 70 cm. However, this finding is not the only one. In 2005, in the United States, the Mexican biologist, specialist in mushrooms, Rene Andrade, stumbled upon the same mushroom, which also grew on a coffee plantation, and its weight was equal to as much as 28 kilograms. Such large sizes make this macromycete an object of close attention of the scientific community.
3. Macromycetes from Canada | weight 26 kg
Canadian Macromycetes can also compete in size. Christian Terrien, a resident of Canada, discovered a raincover weighing 26 kilograms. A man discovered a mushroom while walking with his son in the forest. Canadians were struck by their find and they admitted that they had never seen such large raincoats in their life. The mushroom was taken home and had a photo shoot with him.
2. Fomitiporia ellipsoidea from China | weight 500 kg
Another mushroom, found and studied by Chinese mycologists, was 10.85 meters high with a hat width of 82-88 cm. Scientists believe that this prominent representative of the mushroom kingdom grew at least 20 years. The giant tinder fungus with the world's largest fruit body was found on Hainan Island in 2010, and has now been studied and classified. The brown monster turned out to be a perennial tree mushroom - a representative of the speciesFomitiporia ellipsoidea. One of the authors of the discovery, Yu Cheng Dai, from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says that he and his colleagues first found solid specimens of the same mushroom in Fujian province back in 2008. But still, those macromycetes were not as large as the giant from Hainan. Interestingly, the authors of the study did not intentionally seek a record holder, but simply studied the diversity of tree mushrooms in the island’s forests. “None of us even thought that the mushroom could grow so huge,” says Professor Dai. “We did not recognize him immediately in the forest, because he was too big.” The volume of this fungus was estimated by biologists at 409-525 thousand cm3, and the weight was approximately 500 kilograms. Discovered by scientists F. ellipsoidea grows underground, so for a long time it went unnoticed and was able to grow to such an impressive size.
1. Armillaria ostoyae from the USA | weight over 600 kg
The first line of the ranking is occupied by the largest mushroom in the world, which mycologists found in the relict forests of the United States. He is considered the largest living creature on the planet. This giant belongs to the Armillaria family, whose representatives have long been known for their size. Most of this living organism was underground, only small fungi could be clearly seen on the surface. The name of these macromycetes is Armillaria ostoyae or else they are called honey honey. One such foil is easy to fit in your hand and not too noticeable. But his mycelium, which is a single organism, occupied 880 hectares in Oregon National Park! Her tentacles are located underground and entangle the territory, equal in size to 1665 football fields. The mushroom picker has been growing in Oregon forests for about 2500 years, destroying the root systems of trees in its path. That is why this macromycete is considered the largest on the planet.