The image shows just shards that have broken off the mushroom. The whole mushroom is 35.5 feet long, 2.8 feet wide and about 2 inches thick. Scientist estimate that it is 20 years old and weighs at least half a ton according to the BBC. That’s great, just enough for dinner.
This long fungal fruiting body was discovered growing under a felled tree in China. According to the BBC it was discovered by accident by Professor Yu-Cheng Dai of the herbarium of biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang. The researchers were in the field studying wood-decaying fungi when they came across it.Professor Yu-Cheng Dai said “We were not specifically looking for this fungus; we did not know the fungus can grow so huge.”
Now to clear things up a bit. This is the largest fruiting body found. Mushrooms and toadstools are actually the spore-bearing fruit of fungus, growing above soil or on top of its food source. So they are the sexual stages of a many higher types of fungi. The spores produce new generations of fungi.
So now when you see articles or stories about fungi being bigger than this and their not talking about the fruiting body then you know it’s not the spore-bearing part of the fungus.
Now the main question is how does it taste? I want to cook up a stir fry later.
I Give it:
