The Largest Organism on Earth Is a Fungus🍄

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Most people think the largest living organism on Earth is a blue whale. It's not even close. It's a fungus in Oregon.

[00:00:05]Scientists identified it as Armillaria ostoyae, also called the humongous fungus, spreading through Oregon's National Forest. A 2003 study in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research mapped it across nearly 4 square miles.

[00:00:18]What you see above ground are just the mushrooms. The real organism is the underground mycelium. It is a thread-like fungal network that moves through the soil and tree roots.

[00:00:27]Researchers originally thought they were studying multiple fungi before discovering it was one giant connected organism. They estimate this single organism could weigh up to 35,000 tons.

[00:00:36]For context, that is 70 million pounds.

[00:00:39]It is also thought to be 8,000 years old. It infects and kills weak trees, then breaks them down and recycles them back into the soil. The world's largest living organism doesn't hunt and it doesn't roar, and it's almost completely invisible. Follow for more simplified fungi facts.