The largest mushrooms and conks are the largest known individual fruit bodies. These are known as sporocarps, or, more specifically, basidiocarps and ascocarps for the Basidiomycota and Ascomycota respectively. These fruit bodies have a wide variety of morphologies, ranging from the typical mushroom shape, to brackets (conks), puffballs, cup fungi, stinkhorns, crusts and corals. Many species of fungi, including yeasts, moulds and the fungal component of lichens, do not form fruit bodies in this sense, but can form visible presences such as cankers. Individual fruit bodies need not be individual biological organisms, and extremely large single organisms can be made up of a great many fruit bodies connected by networks of mycelia (including the "humongous fungus", a single specimen of Armillaria solidipes) can cover a very large area.
The largest identified fungal fruit body in the world is a specimen of Phellinus ellipsoideus (formerly Fomitiporia ellipsoidea). The species was discovered in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai in Fujian Province, China. In 2011, the two of them published details of extremely large fruit body of the species that they had found on Hainan Island. The specimen, which was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between . This was markedly larger than the previously largest recorded fungal fruit body, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius found in the United Kingdom that had a circumference of .
Polypores
Polypores are fungi forming fruiting bodies that are often thick and hard on the sides of trees, without a stalk. Many of them form a roughly semicircular projecting bracket; others form a thick crust.
Species and family Distribution Width Thickness Weight CommentsPhellinus ellipsoideus (formerly Fomitiporia ellipsoidea), PolyporaceaeSouthern China long by broad by thick.Between .Rigidoporus ulmarius (formerly Polyporus actinobolus), PolyporaceaeWestern and Southern Europe. wide by broad by top to bottom.Guinness Book of World Records (1998 Am. edition)p. 143.Colin Tudge, The Variety of Life (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000) p. 159. top to bottom.. Phellinus pachyphloeus (or Inonotus pachyphloeus), Polyporaceae The Indian subcontinent. in width, in breadth and top to bottom. top to bottom. Weight not stated.Bridgeoporus nobilissimus, Polyporaceaewestern Washington state, western Oregon and northwestern California. wide by broad top to bottom. top to bottom..Serpula lacrymans, PolyporaceaeOriginally native to Himalayan foothills, but now of pan-temperate distribution. wide by top to bottom. Thickness not stated. top to bottom.Weight not stated.Found growing from an Oak beam in a tunnel in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England in 1858.Gardener's Chronicle Vol. 18 (first series)(May 15, 1858) p. 400.Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine (1878) p. 604Frank Vincent, The Plant World (D. Appleton & co., 1897) p. 227. Inonotus obliquus, Polyporaceae Much of the Northern Hemisphere. Circumference of . . Approximately 15 additional pounds (6.8 kilograms) was left on the host tree for regrowth, bringing the total weight to around .Ganoderma lucidum, Ganodermataceae, PolyporalesChina. Cap wide. Stem short; only ±7 cm (±3 in ) thick. By one report but by another .Grifola frondosa PolyporaceaeNorth Temperate Zone..Meripilus giganteus, Polyporaceae Europe Up to wide, usually accompanied by smaller ones. Cerioporus squamosus, Polyporaceae Cosmopolitan distribution. in circumference.Sir William J. Hooker, "Flora Scotica" (London: Archibald Constable and Co., 1821) Vol. 2 p. 27.. Fomes fomentarius, Polyporaceae Widespread in north temperate zone. in width by top to bottom. top to bottom. Weight not stated.Laccocephalum mylittae, Polyporaceae Australia. Up to .Laetiporus sulphureus, Polyporaceae Widespread in Northern Hemisphere. Approximately half of a specimen was wide by top to bottom. top to bottom. This portion weighed The other half fell into a creek and could not be recovered. Buglossoporus magnus, Fomitopsidaceae, Polyporales Apparently endemic to the Malay Peninsula. in width. Weight not stated.
Mushroom-shaped fungi
Many families of fungi have fruiting bodies consisting of a roughly circular cap supported on a stalk, like the edible mushroom.
Species and familyDistributionDimensionsHeightWeightCommentsFomitiporia expansa, Hymenochaetaceae Probably endemic to French Guiana and neighboring Suriname. . Weight not stated.Phlebopus marginatus, BoletaceaeNative to humid regions of Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java.One found in South Australia prior to 1934 had a cap wide by broad.John Burton Cleland M.D., "Toadstools and Mushrooms and Other Large Fungi of South Australia" (Adelaide: Gov't Printer, 1934) pp. 190-191.Another, at Hall's Gap, Victoria in 1939 weighed but was across the cap.Correspondence from Dr. H. J. Swart of Melbourne University. The heaviest in recent years may be one discovered in Victoria in July 2012, which was found to weigh forty-four pounds (twenty kilograms).Sparassis crispa, Sparassidaceae Europe One found in Mayres, France in October 2000. Dimensions not stated."Earthweek - Diary of a Planet" for week of October 16, 2000, in ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER of that date. . Macrocybe titans, Tricholomataceae Found from northern Florida to southern Brazil One found in Chiapas measured across the cap and in height. Another in Costa Rica measured in width.http://www.fieldmuseum.org/expeditions/area_expedition/gallery_thumb13.html https://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200707/r159235_580495.jpg in height. . This species was discovered in 1980. Macrocybe gigantea, Tricholomataceae Native to China, India, Pakistan, and Nepal. in height and in width. in height Weight not stated. Bondarzewia berkeleyi, Bondarzewiaceae Eastern North America, Europe, China, New Zealand and New Guinea among other places. Nowhere is it common. Total width up to .http://www.mesiah.edu/Oaks/fungi_on_wood/poroid%20fungi/species%20Bondarzewia_berkeleyi.html Tuber and funnels can total up to . One found in Lawrence, Kansas in 2008 was wide and weighed , but it is not clear whether the sclerotium was included.Termitomyces titanicus, LyophyllaceaeZambia, and the Katanga (Shaba) region of Congo (Zaire), in Central Africa. across the cap, and in height.Kew Bulletin Vol. 35 # 3 (1980) pp. 479-482.http://www.spirit-of-the-land.photographer.htm in height. Weight not stated. Others are stated to be up to in diameter.Economic Botany Vol. 31 # 4 (Oct-Dec 1977) p. 436. Phlebopus colossus, Boletaceae Eastern Madagascar. across the cap and in height. in height. 13 lbs (six kg).Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, AgaricaceaePanama across cap by in height.30 cm in height. Weight not stated. Cantharellus californicus Endemic to Oak forests in California. Cap up to twenty inches (fifty cm) in width. Approx. same height. 4.4 pounds (two kilograms). Aspropaxillus giganteus northern temperate zone Cap up to in width, and about in height. in height. Weight not stated.Boletus edulis, Boletaceae Widespread in northern temperate zone. across the cap atop a stem thick.G. R. Kozikowski, "Foray Report from Skye", MYCOLOGIST Vol. 10 #4 (1996) pp. 183-184. It weighed Agaricus campestris, Agaricaceae Throughout northern temperate zone. in circumference. Weight not stated.Morchella esculenta, Morchellaceae Widespread in northern temperate zone. in height and in cap girth. in height It weighed
Puffballs
Puffballs are roughly spherical fungi that when ripe release spores through an opening in a puff of air.
Species and familyDistributionDimensionsHeightWeightCommentsCalvatia gigantea, LycoperdaceaeOf cosmopolitan distribution.One found in Herkimer County, New York was wide by broad by high.American Naturalist Vol. 18 # 5 (May 1884) p. 530.Ernst A. Bessey Ph.D., Morphology and Taxonomy of the Fungi (Philadelphia: The Blakiston Co., 1950) pp. 551-552. Another found along the banks of the Kaministiquia River was in girth. high.One found in Montreal weighed ,Guinness Book of Records (1994 American Edition) p. 55. and was in circumference, while another had a weight of .
Unidentified specimens Two large specimens are excluded from the list above. The first, a polypore photographed in 1903 at Yeerongpilly, Brisbane, Queensland, measured about in width by top to bottom, emerging from a tree about two thick. It was sturdy enough to support the weight of two average women.The Strand Vol. 26 # 151 (July 1903) p. 117 (Photo with human figures)
The second is more speculative. Somewhere in his world travels, writer/naturalist/explorer Ivan T. Sanderson encountered reports of a species of fungi which "weigh a ton, and upheave large trees".Ivan T. Sanderson and David Loth "Ivan Sanderson's Book of Great Jungles" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965) p. 156. The earliest report appears to have been in the writings of James Brooke.Gardener's Chronicle Vol. 18 (second series)(1858) p. 400
See also
List of world records held by plants Largest organisms
References