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Why is the world's largest mushroom destroying the century-old giant tree in the United States like a "vampire"

The world's largest mushroom destroys a century-old giant tree in the United States

By adalberto alejandrinaPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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1. Hundred-year-old trees die one after another

Marhall National Forest Park is located in the Blue Mountains Mountains in eastern Regon. It is one of several well-known forest parks in the United States. Due to its early establishment and little human intervention, it still maintains its original natural ecology and beautiful scenery. Beauty and richness. However, since 1995, staff in the park have successively discovered that centuries-old trees have suddenly died.

At first, the management did not care, because it was normal for a few old trees to die in the huge forest park. However, what happened later made the management sweat: first, the number of deaths of century-old trees soared, from the first year of 4/5 trees soared to 15/20 trees in the second year, and by 1998 a total of 112 century-old trees died. To this end, the management staff almost invited professors and experts from nearby colleges and universities all over the place, but all of them came back in vain.

The turning point came in 1998. This year, after the mass death of century-old trees in Malhall National Forest Park was exposed by the media, it aroused widespread concern among the public and the industry. It is important to know how strong and tall a century-old tree is to be born. Not easy, not to mention there are precious giant fir trees inside. Catherine, a female scientist at the US Agriculture and Forestry Service's Pacific Northwest Research Center, rushed to Forest Park after hearing about the strange event.

Park rangers were baffled by Professor Katherine's approach. It turned out that Professor Catherine asked the management to prepare a helicopter for her, specially for her and her assistant to look down on the entire damaged tree, and take pictures while observing. Catherine's global thinking perspective quickly found a breakthrough: from the gathering place of dead old trees shown in the photo, there will always be a golden mushroom, and the more severely affected areas, the more golden mushrooms. Catherine vaguely felt that the mushroom might be the crux of the problem.

According to Katherine's request, the team extracted and tested the root samples of 112 dead trees. The DNA results all pointed in one direction: the roots of the dead old trees were inhabited by fungi.

What puzzled Catherine was that the DNA data extracted from 61 of the samples were identical, meaning they were from the same plant. Keep in mind that these samples were collected separately from a larger area in the forest park, with two at most 4/5 km apart. Professor Catherine immediately reported the experimental data and speculation to the research center, and the research center invited Professor Ryan, a fungus expert from Oregon State University, who is an authority in the American fungal plant kingdom.

With the blessing of many forces, the mystery of the death of a century-old tree in Mulhall National Forest Park was quickly revealed. The culprit was a mysterious fungus called Armillaria, commonly known as "honey mushroom". The staff of the Forest Park immediately searched for honey mushrooms in a carpet manner, and when they gathered the statistical results, they immediately shocked everyone: the "tentacles" of the honey mushrooms have extended to an area of ​​5.6 kilometers, covering an area of ​​2,200 acres, which is about the same as 1665 football fields, in theory, all plants in the area may be swallowed up like dead dead trees.

Catherine also found that honey mushrooms also have a long standby time, at least 2,400 years old. Some experts bluntly said that Catherine's estimates are too conservative, and the real lifespan should be increased by 2-3 times, up to 7200 years. Honey mushrooms are undoubtedly the old birthday star among mushrooms.

Coincidentally, two other huge honey mushrooms also attracted attention: one was discovered in Michigan in 1992, occupying a total of 37 acres of land; in the same year, a 1,500-acre honey mushroom was found on Mount Adams in eastern Washington. acres of honey mushrooms that almost swallow the entire pine forest. Miraculously, the honey mushroom suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and the U.S. forestry department hesitantly seems to be trying to cover up something. In addition to the United States, honey mushrooms are occasionally found in North America, Europe and Australia, with an area of ​​only a few acres less than a fraction of the size of the United States.

2. Scary Honey Mushrooms

In Catherine's view, the lethality of honey mushrooms can be described as terrifying. The roots of this strain grow under the soil, with an average depth of more than 0.9 meters. They expand underground like ghosts. When they encounter green plants with developed roots, they will break through the surface along the roots, and a golden mushroom will appear on the side. The remainder continued to spread outward. But honey mushrooms grow slowly, but their long lifespan makes up for it, allowing them to reach places 5/6 km away.

Once the roots of a tree are entangled in honey mushrooms, there is only one dead end. Under the soil, the honey mushroom mycelium grows numerous shoelace-shaped black rhizogenes, which compete with trees, flowers and plants for nutrients and water. Professor Catherine pointed out that the horror of the honey mushroom is that its mycelium and root cords extend into the trunks and roots of some trees and are closely intertwined with them.

As a result, honey mushrooms cling to trees more like vampires, sucking up their nutrients, including carbon dioxide. Whether it is a hundred-year-old tree or a young sapling that has just developed, it will eventually wither, but some survive for a long time, and some havetily end their lives.

However, some experts disagree with Katherine's statement about the honey mushroom, which has destroyed more than 100 century-old trees. In their view, the existence of honey mushrooms should be more beneficial than harmful.

Although these damaged old trees lost their lives, they eventually turned into soil, which provided nutrients for other plants and made room for growth. In their original positions, other trees or flowers will surely emerge and establish new ecology, playing an important role in the replacement of old and new forest parks. If the dead tree stands there, it will become a home for woodpeckers.

Some experts suspect that the honey mushroom is a variant of a certain mushroom in the modern environment, on the grounds that such a behemoth is not allowed in the natural environment, but they have no convincing evidence, so they only stay in the conjecture stage. At present, honey mushrooms are in the observation stage all over the world. After all, this mushroom still has a good taste after processing, and it is really impossible for people to eat it.

Science
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About the Creator

adalberto alejandrina

scientific exploration

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