Mushrooms are a special form of life, combining the signs of plants and animals. Among them, there are record-holders for growth 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 somehow miraculously did not get into the basket to the mushroom picker and were not eaten by animals.
The list includes the largest fungi 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 was discovered by a young gardener girl Terry Hodson-Walker, after the rainy season. The width of the giant's cap was about 46 centimeters, and he weighed 2 kilograms. After the find, the girl decided to apply to the Guinness Book of Records, so that the macromycete was officially recognized as the largest fungus in the world. The scientific name of the discovered fungus is Calvatia gigantea. This is a normal raincoat, which can be found almost all over the world. This species can reach enormous sizes, but often becomes a prey to forest animals that do not mind eating a raincoat.
9
Co-worker from Russia weight 2.4 kg
Another contender for the title of the largest fungus in the world - is a co-worker from Russia , found in the Tomsk region. Local mushroomer Alexei King in the woods near his village found a giant podborozovik. The diameter of the cap of the giant mushroom was 36 centimeters, and the height of the leg was 28 cm. The weight of the champion was 2 kg 400 grams! As noted by the TV channel "Russia", it's not any alien mutant from space, but an ordinary podberezovik, not even wormy.
8
Lingzhi from China weight 7.5 kg
Found a huge tinder lacquered, or as it is called in China - lingzhi ( Ganoderma lucidum) - weighs 7.5 kg and its diameter is 107 cm. Discovered the find in one of theprovincial Chinese cities of Hazhou. This fungus belongs to the genus Ganoderma, which has been used in Chinese medicine for more than 2000 years. It is also called the "fungus of immortality".It is believed that lingzhi increases immunity due to active compounds called polysaccharides, which can increase the activity of white blood cells. The impressive size and weight of the tinder allows him to take one of the lines of the ranking of the largest mushrooms in the world.
7
Raincoat from Russia weight 12 kg
The biggest mushroom in Russia is the raincoat , found by the mushroom picker Vladislav Grabosinsky in the fall of 2011 in the Perm region. The diameter of the giant's cap was 1 meter and 72 centimeters, and the height - about half a meter. The weight of the find exceeded 12 kilograms. Biologists do not consider this finding rare. Raincoats grew and in large sizes reaching 20 kg in weight. Raincoats are eaten when they are young. Since the giant was already late, Vladislav took it for study at the Department of Botany of Perm University. This edible miracle was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
6
Champignon from Italy weight 14 kg
In Italy, too, recorded a kind of record. A huge champignon, weighing about 14 kilograms, was found by Francesco Quito, a resident of the province of Bari. Despite the fact that the fungus was found near the village, Francesco could hardly bear it on his shoulder, so he had to use the car. The mushroom was unspoiled and edible. I had to call my neighbors to eat such a giant.
5
Macromycet from China weight 15 kg
In the Chinese province of Yunnan, a giant macromycete was found, weighing 15 kilograms. The mushroom not only turned out to be huge, but also had an unusual shape. Outwardly it resembled a hundred small mushroom hats growing on one leg! In the diameter of the cap it reached almost 1 meter. What kind of an eccentric mushroom organism the scientist has not yet defined.
4
Macrocybe Titans from the USA weight 20 kg
If to speak about traditional macromycetes in the usual sense, then the leader in size can be called Macrocybe Titans , which grows in the Caribbean countries and the USA.In one of the southern Mexican states in 2007, a specimen was found, the mass of which was 20 kg, and the height - about 70 cm. However, this finding is not the only one. In 2005, in the US, a Mexican biologist, mushroom specialist René Andrade, came across the same fungus, which also grew on a coffee plantation, and its weight was equal to a total of 28 kilograms. Such large sizes make this macromycete the object of close attention of the scientific community.
3
Macromycet from Canada weight 26 kg
Canadian macromycetes can also compete in sizes. A Canadian citizen Christian Terrien discovered a 26 kilogram raincoat. A man found a mushroom while walking with his son in the woods. Canadians struck their find and they admitted that they had never seen such large raincoats in their lives. The mushroom was taken home and made a photo session with him.
2
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea from China weight 500 kg
Another fungus, found and studied by Chinese mycologists, has grown 10.85 meters high with a width of 82-88 cm. Scientists believe that this outstanding representative of the mushroom kingdom grew, at least, 20 years. Giant trutovik with the world's largest fruit body was found on the island of Hainan in 2010, and is now studied and classified. The brown monster turned out to be a perennial tree fungus - a representative of the species Fomitiporia 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, together with his colleagues, was found with solid specimens of the same fungus for the first time in 2008 in Fujian. But still those macromycetes were not as large as the giant from Hainan. Interestingly, the authors of the study did not seek the record holder intentionally, but simply studied the variety of wood fungi in the forests of the island."None of us even imagined that the fungus could grow so large," says Professor Dai."We did not recognize him right away 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 of approximately 500 kilograms. Discovered by scientists F. ellipsoidea grows underground, so for a long time it remained unnoticed and was able to grow to such impressive dimensions.
1
Armillaria ostoyae from the US weight more than 600 kg
The first line of the ranking is the largest fungus in the world, which mycologists found in the relic 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 mushrooms could be seen clearly on the surface. The name of these macromycetes is Armillaria ostoyae or else they are called honey honey agarics. One of these canines easily fits in your hand and is not very noticeable. But his mycelium, which is a single organism, has occupied 880 hectares in the Oregon National Park! Its tentacles are located under the ground and entangle territory equal in size to 1,665 football fields. Mushroom spawned over the Oregon forests for about 2500 years, destroying the root systems of trees on its way. That is why this macromycete is considered to be the largest on the planet.
