Redwoods National Park, California
Arrange these organisms by mass, largest first.
What is your best guess? Would it surprise you if I said they are already in order?
The largest organism on the planet is Pando, a colony of the Quaking Aspen Tree. Pando is a single, interconnected clonal entity. A specimen in Utah is estimated to be 8 kilometers (5 miles) across, weighing a whopping 6,000,000 kg (6,600 tons).
Coming in second is a mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae, dubbed The Humongous Fungus. An individual contiguous specimen in the Cascade Range of Oregon covers almost 10 square km and weighs an estimated 3,150,000 kg (3,500 tons).
The Giant Redwood, also known as a Sequoia, can reach 95 meters (300’) into the sky and have a diameter of 21 meters (68’). Big, but nowhere near as massive as the mushroom that grows at its base.
The Blue Whale is the largest mammal on the planet. There are currently about 88 individual whales that exceed 30 meters (100’) in length. They each weigh about 200 tonnes (440,000 lb).
The heart of a Blue Whale stranded in the North Atlantic weighed in at 180 kg (400 lb).
This photo of a teeny tiny elephant was taken while we were in Africa last year. It is only about 2.5 meters (8’) tall and weighs no more than 5,500 kg (12,000 lb).
Apparently, the armillaria ostoyae mushroom is edible. Join Bear and I for pizza later, won’t they be surprised when we ask for “pepperoni, with …
… Humungous Fungus”.
Monkey’s Uncle Award
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