And the biggest organism on the planet is... a mushroom?
Yep, you heard me right. "Mushrooms" as we think of them are just the fruiting body of the main fungus, which is almost entirely underground. Multiple fruiting bodies can pop up from one individual fungus, so it's extremely hard to tell how large some mushrooms are until... well, they start to kill a forest.
Until August of 2000 it was thought that the largest living organism was a fungus of the same species (Armillaria ostoyae) that covered 1,500 acres (600 hectares) found living in the state of Washington. But then mycology experts surmised that if an Armillaria that large could be found in Washington, then perhaps one just as large could be responsible for the trees dying in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains
of eastern Oregon. Researchers were astonished at the sheer magnitude of the find. This most recent find was estimated to cover over 2,200 acres (890 hectares) and be at least 2,400 years old, possibly older.
Main article here: http://www.extremescience.com/biggestlivingthing.htm
Until August of 2000 it was thought that the largest living organism was a fungus of the same species (Armillaria ostoyae) that covered 1,500 acres (600 hectares) found living in the state of Washington. But then mycology experts surmised that if an Armillaria that large could be found in Washington, then perhaps one just as large could be responsible for the trees dying in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains
of eastern Oregon. Researchers were astonished at the sheer magnitude of the find. This most recent find was estimated to cover over 2,200 acres (890 hectares) and be at least 2,400 years old, possibly older.
Main article here: http://www.extremescience.com/biggestlivingthing.htm