The largest mushrooms in the world

Mushrooms are a special form of life that combines the characteristics of plants and animals. Among them there are champions in 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 oddly enough, most of the largest mushrooms are edible, which by some miracle did not fall into the mushroom picker’s basket 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

Unlocks ten large mushrooms Calvatia gigantea from England. The record holder was discovered by a young gardener, Terry Hodson-Walker, after the rainy season. The width of the giant’s hat was approximately 46 centimeters, and it weighed 2 kilograms. After the discovery, the girl decided to apply to the Guinness Book of Records in order for the macromycete to be officially recognized as the largest mushroom in the world. The scientific name of the discovered fungus is Calvatia gigantea. This is an ordinary raincoat, which can be found almost all over the world. This species can reach colossal sizes, but often becomes a victim of forest animals that are not averse to feasting on a raincoat.

9. Boletus from Russia | weight 2.4 kg

Another contender for the title of the largest mushroom in the world –boletus from Russiafound in the Tomsk region. Local mushroom picker Alexei Korol found a giant boletus in the forest near his village. The diameter of the cap of the giant mushroom was 36 centimeters, and the height of the stem was 28 cm. The weight of the record holder was 2 kilograms 400 grams! As the Rossiya TV channel noted, this is not some kind of mutant alien from outer space, but an ordinary birch boletus, not even wormy.

8. Lingzhi from China | weight 7,5 kg

Found a huge varnished tinder fungus, or, as it is called in China – lynching (Ganoderma lucidum) – weighs 7,5 kg, and its diameter is 107 cm. They 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 over 2000 years. It is also called the “mushroom of immortality”. Lingzhi is believed to boost immunity due to active compounds called polysaccharides, which can increase the activity of white blood cells. The impressive size and weight of the tinder fungus allow it to take one of the lines in the ranking of the largest mushrooms in the world.

7. Raincoat from Russia | weight 12 kg

The largest mushroom in Russia is raincoat, found by mushroom picker Vladislav Grabosinsky in the fall of 2011 in the Perm region. 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 it was already too late to eat the giant, Vladislav took him to study at the Botany Department of Perm University. This edible miracle was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

6. Mushroom 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 found 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 the neighbors to eat such a giant.

5. Macromycetes from China | weight 15 kg

In the Chinese province of Yunnan, a giant macromycetewho weighed 15 kilograms. The mushroom not only turned out to be huge, but also had an unusual shape. Outwardly, it looked like a hundred small mushroom caps growing on one leg! In the diameter of the hat, it reached almost 1 meter. Scientists have not yet determined what kind of eccentric mushroom organism belongs to.

4. Macrocybe Titans from USA | weight 20 kg

If we talk about traditional macromycetes in the usual sense, then the leader in size can be called Macrocybe Titans, which grows in the Caribbean 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 was about 70 cm. However, this find is not the only one. In 2005 in the United States, Mexican biologist and mushroom specialist Rene Andrade stumbled upon the same mushroom, which also grew on a coffee plantation, and its weight was as much as 28 kilograms. Such large sizes make this macromycete the object of close attention of the scientific community.

3. Macromycetes from Canada | weight 26 kg

Canadian macromycetes can also compete in size. A raincoat weighing 26 kilograms was discovered by a resident of Canada, Christian Terrien. A man discovered a mushroom while walking with his son through the forest. Canadians were amazed by their find and they admitted that they had never seen such large raincoats in their lives. 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 grew 10,85 meters in height with a hat width of 82-88 cm. Scientists believe that this outstanding representative of the mushroom kingdom grew for at least 20 years. A giant tinder fungus with the world’s largest fruiting 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 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 and his colleagues first found solid specimens of the same fungus 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 deliberately look for a record holder, but simply studied the diversity of tree mushrooms in the forests of the island. “None of us even imagined that a mushroom could grow so huge,” says Professor Dai. “We didn’t immediately recognize him in the forest because he was too big.” Biologists estimated the volume of this fungus at 409-525 thousand cm3, and its weight at about 500 kilograms. Discovered by scientists, F. ellipsoidea grows underground, so it went unnoticed for a long time and was able to grow to such an impressive size.

1. Armillaria ostoyae from USA | weight over 600 kg

The first line of the rating is occupied by the largest mushroom in the world, which mycologists discovered in the relict forests of the United States. It is considered the largest living being 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 clearly seen on the surface. The name of these macromycetes is Armillaria ostoyae or otherwise they are called honey mushrooms. One such honey agaric fits easily in the hand and is not too remarkable. But his mycelium, which is a single organism, occupied 880 hectares of area in the Oregon National Park! Its tentacles are located underground and entangle an area equal in size to 1665 football fields. The fungus has grown through the 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.