Fun Fungi Facts: 420 m.y. ago the largest terrestrial organism was Prototaxites . Fossilised remains of this organism appeared as large tree trunks up to 1m wide and heights reaching 8m Prototaxites towered over its environment. First discovered in 1859 Prototaxites (a name loosely meaning "first yew") was described as "partially rotten giant conifers". Today we know Prototaxites is a fungus (possibly a lichen). Prototaxites was a giant of its time, when plants reaching heights of 1m towering above "moss forests, this OG Humongous Fungus would have been truly a spectacular sight. This fungal spire would have been the fruiting body, or the mushroom, of the fungus and would be fueled by vast networks of mycelium.
The wikipedia article has an amusing paragraph about the scientist who first described Prototaxites. A rival scientist rebuked the claims that Prototaxites was a tree and instead should be renamed to Nematophycus ("stringy alga"), something that was bad form in the scientific community. The first scientist continued to defend the name Prototaxites until microstructure studies when the flip-flop happened and they claimed that actually they never thought it was a tree and tried changing the name to Nematophyton, or "stringy plant".
Fun Fungus Facts: A colony of the species Armillaria ostoyae, residing in Oregon's Malheur National Forest, is the world's largest organism by area. Covering an area of 9.6km2 this Humongous Fungus is estimated to be more than 2000 years old (as old as 8000 years depending on which rates of spread are used). Estimates for the mass of this colony range from 7000 to 35000 tons, however most of this is water. This fungus infects trees within its domain but it can also act as a saprophyte and break down dead plant matter. Other genetically distinct individual organisms have also been found however these do not reach the proportions of the Humongous Fungus.
That is interesting thank you. I should start doing some maths and physics exercises, I remember solving problems was quite fun. It gives a certain satisfaction that I don't think I've felt in a while.
Fun Fungus Fact: The shaggy ink cap mushroom , Coprinus comatus, can break through asphalt. One specimen of this choice edible mushroom has been reported lifting a 75 by 60 centimetre paving slab 4 centimetres in 48 hours. Due to the tight packing of its gills this mushroom undergoes a process of self liquefaction, or auto-deliquescence, allowing more of the surface of the gills to be exposed to the wind to spread it's spores. This process of liquefaction occurs quite quickly if the moisture of the environment is right with the mushroom growing and becoming a black puddle within 24 hours. As the name implies, the shaggy ink cap can be used to make ink by mixing the mushroom with water and boiling it with some cloves to stabilise the ink.
·3 years ago
:shroomjak: lovely thread for a lovely day