Fomitiporia ellipsoidea
Encyclopedia
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea is a species of polypore
fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae
, a specimen of which produced the largest fruit body ever recorded. Found in China, the fruit bodies produced by the species are brown, woody basidiocarps that grow on dead wood, where the fungus feeds as a saprotroph. The basidiocarps are perennial, allowing them to grow very large under favourable circumstances. They are resupinate, measuring 30 centimetres (11.8 in) or more in length, though typically extending less than a centimetre from the surface of the wood. F. ellipsoidea produces distinct ellipsoidal spores
, after which it is named, and unusual setae. These two features allow it to be readily differentiated microscopically from other, similar species. A number of chemical compound
s have been isolated from the species, including several steroidal compounds. These may have pharmacological applications, but further research is needed.
First recorded in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai in Fujian Province, it was revealed in 2011 that a very large fruit body, measuring up to 1085 cm (427.2 in) in length, had been found by the pair on Hainan Island. The specimen, which was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kg (881.8 and 1,102.3 lb). This was markedly larger than the previously largest recorded fruit body, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius
found in the United Kingdom, which had a circumference of 425 cm (167.3 in). The findings were formally published in September 2011, but attracted international attention from the mainstream press prior to this.
. Five specimens of the then-unknown species were collected during field work in the Wanmulin Nature Reserve (27°03′N 118°08′E), Jian'ou
, Fujian Province. The pair named the species Fomitiporia ellipsoidea in an article in the journal Mycotaxon
. The specific name ellipsoidea is from the Latin
meaning "ellipsoid", and refers to the shape of the spores. Fomitiporia ellipsoidea was the eleventh species of Fomitiporia
recorded in China. Species of the order Hymenochaetales
, to which F. ellipsoidea belongs, make up 25% of the over 700 species of polypore
found in China.
characterized them as measuring up to 30 centimetres (11.8 in) "or more" in length, 20 cm (7.9 in) in width, and extending 8 mm (0.31496062992126 in) from the wood on which they grow at their thickest point. The outermost layer is typically a yellow to yellowish-brown colour, measuring 2 mm (0.078740157480315 in) in thickness. The shiny surface of the hymenium
, the spore-producing section of the fruit body, is covered in pores and ranges in colour from a yellow-brown to a rust-brown. There are between 5 and 8 pores per millimetre. The tubes are up to 8 mm (0.31496062992126 in) in depth, have the same colouration as the surface of the hymenium, and are distinctively layered. They are also hard and woody. The very thin yellow-brown layer of flesh
measures less than 0.5 mm (0.0196850393700787 in) in width. As with much of the rest of the fruit body, it is firm, solid, and reminiscent of wood. The fruit bodies lack any odour or taste.
s (μm). The average spore length is 5.25 μm, while the average width is 4.14 μm. The spores have thick cell walls, and are hyaline
. They are strongly cyanophilous, meaning that the cell walls will readily absorb methyl blue
stain. In addition, they are weakly dextrinoid, meaning that they will stain slightly reddish-brown in Melzer's reagent
or Lugol's solution. The spores are borne on barrel-shaped basidia, with four spores per basidium, measuring 8 to 12 by 6 to 7 μm. There are also basidioles, which are similar in shape to the basidia, but slightly smaller.
In addition to the spore shape, the species is readily identified with the use of a microscope due to its setae. Setae are a kind of unusual cystidia unique to the family Hymenochaetaceae, and, in F. ellipsoidea, are found in the hymenium. In shape, the setae are ventricose
, with distinctive hooks on their tips. In colour, they are yellow-brown, and they have thick cell walls. They measure 20 to 30 by 10 to 14 μm. Neither more standard cystidia nor cystidioles (underdeveloped cystidia) can be found in the species, but there are a number of rhomboid
crystals throughout the hymenium and the flesh.
Most of the tissue of a fungal fruit body is made up of hyphae, which can be of three forms: generative, skeletal and binding. In F. ellipsoidea, the tissue is dominated by skeletal hyphae, but also has generative hyphae; it lacks binding hyphae. For this reason, the hyphal structure of F. ellipsoidea is referred to as "dimitic". The hyphae are divided into separate cells by septae, and lack clamp connections. The skeletal hyphae do not react with Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, and are not cyanophilous. While the hyphae will darken when a solution of potassium hydroxide
is applied (the KOH test
), they remain otherwise unchanged.
The main structure of the fruit body consists primarily of an agglutination
(mass) of interwoven skeletal hyphae, which are golden- to rust-brown. The hyphae are unbranched, forming long tubes 2 to 3.6 μm in diameter, enveloping a lumen of variable thickness. There are also hyaline generative hyphae. These hyphae have thinner walls than the skeletal hyphae, and are also septate (possessing of septa), but are sometimes branched. They measure 2 to 3 μm in diameter. The flesh, again, is primarily made up of skeletal hyphae with some generative hyphae. The thick-walled skeletal hyphae are a yellow-brown to rust brown, and are slightly less agglutinate. The hyphae in the flesh are a little smaller; the skeletal hyphae measure 1.8 to 3.4 μm in diameter, while the generative hyphae measure 1.5 to 2.6 μm in diameter.
Two other potentially similar species are Phellinus caribaeo-quercicola and P. uncinatus. The former shares the hooked hymenial setae and ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal spores. However, details of the fruit body differ, and the spores are hyaline to yellowish, and not dextrinoid. Further, the species is known only from tropical America, where it grows on the Cuban oak
. Phellinus uncinatus again has hooked hymenial setae, and the spores are, as with Fomitiporia ellipsoidea, thick-walled and dextrinoid. The species can be differentiated by the fact the spores are spherical or nearly so, and somewhat larger than those of F. ellipsoidea, measuring 5.5 to 7 by 5 to 6.5 μm. The species is also known only from tropical America, where it grows on bamboo
.
s of the subgenus
Cyclobalanopsis, as well as the wood of other flowering plants. The species favours the trunk
of trees, where it feeds as a saprotroph, causing white rot. F. ellipsoidea fruit bodies are perennial growers, allowing them to, in the correct circumstances, grow very large. The species is found in the tropical and subtropical areas of China; it has been recorded in Fujian Province and Hainan Province. It is not a common species, and fruit bodies are only occasionally encountered.
. The pair uncovered a very large F. ellipsoidea fruit body on a fallen Quercus asymetrica
log, which turned out to be the largest fungal fruit body ever documented. The fruit body was found at an altitude of 958 metres (3,143 ft), in old-growth forest. They were initially unable to identify the specimen as F. ellipsoidea, because of its large size, but tests revealed its identity after samples were taken for analysis. After their initial encounter with the large fruit body, Cui and Dai returned to it on two subsequent occasions, so that they could study it further. Nicholas P. Money, executive editor of Fungal Biology, in which the findings were published, praised the pair for not removing the fruit body, thereby allowing it "to continue its business and to marvel visitors to Hainan Island". The discovery was formally published in Fungal Biology in September 2011, but gained attention in the mainstream press worldwide prior to this.
The fruit body was 20 years old, and up to 1085 cm (35.6 ft) long. It was between 82 and 88 cm (32.3 and 34.6 in) wide, and between 4.6 and 5.5 cm (1.8 and 2.2 in) thick. The total volume of the fruit body was somewhere between 409000 and 525000 cm³ (24,939 and 32,012.2 in3). It was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kg (881.8 and 1,102.3 lb), based on three samples from different areas of the fruit body. The specimen had an average of 49 pores per square millimetre, roughly equivalent to 425 million pores. Money estimated that, based on spore output from other polypore species, the fruit body would be able to release a trillion spores a day.
Prior to this discovery, the largest recorded fruit body of any fungus was a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius
, found in Kew Gardens, United Kingdom. It measured 150 by in diameter, and had a circumference of 425 cm (167.3 in). While the largest individual fruit bodies belong to polypores, individual organisms belonging to certain Armillaria species can grow extremely large. In 2003, a large specimen of A. solidipes (synonymous with A. ostoyae) was recorded in the Blue Mountains
, Oregon
, covering an area of 965 hectares (2,384.6 acre). At the time, the organism was estimated to be 8650 years old. Prior to this, an A. gallica
(synonymous with A. bulbosa) organism was the largest recorded, covering 15 hectares (37.1 acre), weighing approximately 9700 kilograms (21,384.8 lb). However, whilst these organisms cover a large area, the individual fruit bodies (the mushroom
s) are not remarkably large, typically with stem
s of up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in height and cap
s less than 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in diameter, weighing from 40 to 100 g (1.4 to 3.5 oz) each.
In 2011, research into the chemistry of F. ellipsoidea was published in the journal Mycosystema by Cui, along with Hai-Ying Bao and Bao-Kai Liu of the Jilin Agricultural University. The research discussed how several chemical compounds could be isolated from F. ellipsoidea with petroleum ether
and (after defatting) chloroform
. The nine compounds isolated from these extracts included the common ergosterol
and its derivative
ergosterol peroxide
. Two of the compounds, ergosta-7,22,25-triene-3-one and benzo[1,2-b:5,4-b']difuran-3,5-dione-8-methyl formate, were new to science. Several of the compounds were steroidal; such compounds play important physiological roles in cell membranes. Further, steroidal compounds can have pharmacological or taxonomical applications; for instance, some can act as anti-inflammatories (including ergosterol) or inhibit tumour growth. The study concluded that, as F. ellipsoidea contained a large number of diverse steroidal compounds, there may be comparatively high pharmacological activity in the fungus; however, more research would be needed to confirm this.
Polypore
Polypores are a group of tough, leathery poroid mushrooms similar to boletes, but typically lacking a distinct stalk. The technical distinction between the two types of mushrooms is that polypores do not have the spore-bearing tissue continuous along the entire underside of the mushroom. Many...
fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae
Hymenochaetaceae
The Hymenochaetaceae are a family of fungi in the order Hymenochaetales. The family contains several species that are implicated in many diseases of broad-leaved and coniferous trees, causing heart rot, canker and root diseases, and also esca disease of grapevines...
, a specimen of which produced the largest fruit body ever recorded. Found in China, the fruit bodies produced by the species are brown, woody basidiocarps that grow on dead wood, where the fungus feeds as a saprotroph. The basidiocarps are perennial, allowing them to grow very large under favourable circumstances. They are resupinate, measuring 30 centimetres (11.8 in) or more in length, though typically extending less than a centimetre from the surface of the wood. F. ellipsoidea produces distinct ellipsoidal spores
Basidiospore
A basidiospore is a reproductive spore produced by Basidiomycete fungi. Basidiospores typically each contain one haploid nucleus that is the product of meiosis, and they are produced by specialized fungal cells called basidia. In grills under a cap of one common species in the phylum of...
, after which it is named, and unusual setae. These two features allow it to be readily differentiated microscopically from other, similar species. A number of chemical compound
Chemical compound
A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...
s have been isolated from the species, including several steroidal compounds. These may have pharmacological applications, but further research is needed.
First recorded in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai in Fujian Province, it was revealed in 2011 that a very large fruit body, measuring up to 1085 cm (427.2 in) in length, had been found by the pair on Hainan Island. The specimen, which was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kg (881.8 and 1,102.3 lb). This was markedly larger than the previously largest recorded fruit body, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius
Rigidoporus ulmarius
Rigidoporus ulmarius is a plant pathogen found mainly on broad-leaved trees. It used to be very common on elm.The fruiting bodies are white, knobbly and relatively hard, requiring a fair amount of force to break. Older bodies may be covered with green algae, or partially covered with vegetation and...
found in the United Kingdom, which had a circumference of 425 cm (167.3 in). The findings were formally published in September 2011, but attracted international attention from the mainstream press prior to this.
Discovery and taxonomy
The species was first described in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai, both of the Beijing Forestry UniversityBeijing Forestry University
Beijing Forestry University is is as one of the key universities directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education. It is a multi-disciplinary university. As one of the key national universities directly under the Ministry of Education in China, Beijing Forestry University provides...
. Five specimens of the then-unknown species were collected during field work in the Wanmulin Nature Reserve (27°03′N 118°08′E), Jian'ou
Jian'ou
Jian'ou 【; Minbe di: Guing'ei 】 is a county-level city of Fujian province of the People's Republic of China.Jian'ou is within a major rice-growing area...
, Fujian Province. The pair named the species Fomitiporia ellipsoidea in an article in the journal Mycotaxon
Mycotaxon
Mycotaxon is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes papers on the nomenclature and taxonomy of the fungi, including lichens....
. The specific name ellipsoidea is from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
meaning "ellipsoid", and refers to the shape of the spores. Fomitiporia ellipsoidea was the eleventh species of Fomitiporia
Fomitiporia
Fomitiporia is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenochaetaceae. According to a 2008 estimate, the widely distributed genus contains 11 species, though three new species were identified in 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa using multigene molecular phylogenetic analysis...
recorded in China. Species of the order Hymenochaetales
Hymenochaetales
The Hymenochaetales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order in its current sense is based on molecular research and not on any unifying morphological characteristics. According to one 2008 estimate, the Hymenochaetales contain around 600 species worldwide, mostly corticioid...
, to which F. ellipsoidea belongs, make up 25% of the over 700 species of polypore
Polypore
Polypores are a group of tough, leathery poroid mushrooms similar to boletes, but typically lacking a distinct stalk. The technical distinction between the two types of mushrooms is that polypores do not have the spore-bearing tissue continuous along the entire underside of the mushroom. Many...
found in China.
Description
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea produces resupinate fruit bodies that are hard and woody whether fresh or dry. The original descriptionSpecies description
A species description or type description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species which have been described previously, or are...
characterized them as measuring up to 30 centimetres (11.8 in) "or more" in length, 20 cm (7.9 in) in width, and extending 8 mm (0.31496062992126 in) from the wood on which they grow at their thickest point. The outermost layer is typically a yellow to yellowish-brown colour, measuring 2 mm (0.078740157480315 in) in thickness. The shiny surface of the hymenium
Hymenium
The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some cells develop into sterile cells called cystidia or...
, the spore-producing section of the fruit body, is covered in pores and ranges in colour from a yellow-brown to a rust-brown. There are between 5 and 8 pores per millimetre. The tubes are up to 8 mm (0.31496062992126 in) in depth, have the same colouration as the surface of the hymenium, and are distinctively layered. They are also hard and woody. The very thin yellow-brown layer of flesh
Trama (mycology)
In mycology trama is a term for the inner, fleshy portion of a mushroom's basidiocarp, or fruit body. It is distinct from the outer layer of tissue, known as the pileipellis or cuticle, and from the spore-bearing tissue layer known as the hymenium....
measures less than 0.5 mm (0.0196850393700787 in) in width. As with much of the rest of the fruit body, it is firm, solid, and reminiscent of wood. The fruit bodies lack any odour or taste.
Microscopic features
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea produces basidiospores that are ellipsoidal or broadly ellipsoidal in shape. The spore shape is one of the features that makes the species readily recognisable microscopically, and the spores measure from 4.5 to 6.1 by 3.5 to 5 micrometreMicrometre
A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
s (μm). The average spore length is 5.25 μm, while the average width is 4.14 μm. The spores have thick cell walls, and are hyaline
Hyaline
The term hyaline denotes a substance with a glass-like appearance.-Histopathology:In histopathological medical usage, a hyaline substance appears glassy and pink after being stained with haematoxylin and eosin — usually it is an acellular, proteinaceous material...
. They are strongly cyanophilous, meaning that the cell walls will readily absorb methyl blue
Methyl blue
Methyl blue, also known as Cotton blue, Helvetia blue, Acid blue 93, or C.I. 42780, is a chemical compound with the molecular formula C37H27N3Na2O9S3. It is used as a stain in histology. Methyl blue stains collagen blue in tissue sections. It is soluble in water and slightly soluble in ethanol...
stain. In addition, they are weakly dextrinoid, meaning that they will stain slightly reddish-brown in Melzer's reagent
Melzer's Reagent
Melzer's reagent is a chemical reagent used by mycologists to assist with the identification of fungi.-Composition:...
or Lugol's solution. The spores are borne on barrel-shaped basidia, with four spores per basidium, measuring 8 to 12 by 6 to 7 μm. There are also basidioles, which are similar in shape to the basidia, but slightly smaller.
In addition to the spore shape, the species is readily identified with the use of a microscope due to its setae. Setae are a kind of unusual cystidia unique to the family Hymenochaetaceae, and, in F. ellipsoidea, are found in the hymenium. In shape, the setae are ventricose
Ventricose
In mycology, Ventricose is a condition in which the cystidia, lamella or stipe of a mushroom is swollen in the middle....
, with distinctive hooks on their tips. In colour, they are yellow-brown, and they have thick cell walls. They measure 20 to 30 by 10 to 14 μm. Neither more standard cystidia nor cystidioles (underdeveloped cystidia) can be found in the species, but there are a number of rhomboid
Rhomboid
Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are oblique.A parallelogram with sides of equal length is a rhombus but not a rhomboid....
crystals throughout the hymenium and the flesh.
Most of the tissue of a fungal fruit body is made up of hyphae, which can be of three forms: generative, skeletal and binding. In F. ellipsoidea, the tissue is dominated by skeletal hyphae, but also has generative hyphae; it lacks binding hyphae. For this reason, the hyphal structure of F. ellipsoidea is referred to as "dimitic". The hyphae are divided into separate cells by septae, and lack clamp connections. The skeletal hyphae do not react with Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, and are not cyanophilous. While the hyphae will darken when a solution of potassium hydroxide
Potassium hydroxide
Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula KOH, commonly called caustic potash.Along with sodium hydroxide , this colorless solid is a prototypical strong base. It has many industrial and niche applications. Most applications exploit its reactivity toward acids and its corrosive...
is applied (the KOH test
KOH test
The KOH Test for Candida albicans, also known as a potassium hydroxide preparation, is a quick, inexpensive fungal test to differentiate between dermatophytes and Candida albicans symptoms from other skin disorders like psoriasis and eczema....
), they remain otherwise unchanged.
The main structure of the fruit body consists primarily of an agglutination
Agglutination (biology)
Agglutination is the clumping of particles. The word agglutination comes from the Latin agglutinare, meaning "to glue."This occurs in biology in three main examples:...
(mass) of interwoven skeletal hyphae, which are golden- to rust-brown. The hyphae are unbranched, forming long tubes 2 to 3.6 μm in diameter, enveloping a lumen of variable thickness. There are also hyaline generative hyphae. These hyphae have thinner walls than the skeletal hyphae, and are also septate (possessing of septa), but are sometimes branched. They measure 2 to 3 μm in diameter. The flesh, again, is primarily made up of skeletal hyphae with some generative hyphae. The thick-walled skeletal hyphae are a yellow-brown to rust brown, and are slightly less agglutinate. The hyphae in the flesh are a little smaller; the skeletal hyphae measure 1.8 to 3.4 μm in diameter, while the generative hyphae measure 1.5 to 2.6 μm in diameter.
Similar species
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea differs from other species of Fomitiporia in two key respects. Its spores are less dextrinoid than those of other species of the genus and their shape is atypical. Other traits are typical of the genus. Five other species of Fomitiporia, F. bannaensis, F. pseudopunctata, F. sonorae, F. sublaevigata and F. tenuis, share with F. ellipsoidea the resupinate fruit bodies and the setae in the hymenium. Despite this, all of them but F. ellipsoiea have straight hymenial setae, and all of them have spores which are spherical or almost spherical, which is much more typical of the genus.Two other potentially similar species are Phellinus caribaeo-quercicola and P. uncinatus. The former shares the hooked hymenial setae and ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal spores. However, details of the fruit body differ, and the spores are hyaline to yellowish, and not dextrinoid. Further, the species is known only from tropical America, where it grows on the Cuban oak
Quercus cubana
Quercus cubana, the Cuban oak, is a medium sized evergreen tree native to Western Cuba in the Cuban pine forests ecoregion.Some authors believe it is a hybrid between sand live oak and Quercus oleoides rather than a true species....
. Phellinus uncinatus again has hooked hymenial setae, and the spores are, as with Fomitiporia ellipsoidea, thick-walled and dextrinoid. The species can be differentiated by the fact the spores are spherical or nearly so, and somewhat larger than those of F. ellipsoidea, measuring 5.5 to 7 by 5 to 6.5 μm. The species is also known only from tropical America, where it grows on bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
.
Distribution and ecology
Fomitiporia ellipsoidea has been recorded growing on the fallen wood of oakOak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
s of the subgenus
Subgenus
In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...
Cyclobalanopsis, as well as the wood of other flowering plants. The species favours the trunk
Trunk (botany)
In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...
of trees, where it feeds as a saprotroph, causing white rot. F. ellipsoidea fruit bodies are perennial growers, allowing them to, in the correct circumstances, grow very large. The species is found in the tropical and subtropical areas of China; it has been recorded in Fujian Province and Hainan Province. It is not a common species, and fruit bodies are only occasionally encountered.
Largest fruit body
In 2010, Cui and Dai were performing field work in tropical woodland on Hainan Island, China, studying wood-rotting fungiWood-decay fungus
A wood-decay fungus is a variety of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such as Armillaria , are parasitic and colonize living trees. Fungi that not only grow on wood but actually cause it to decay, are called...
. The pair uncovered a very large F. ellipsoidea fruit body on a fallen Quercus asymetrica
Quercus asymetrica
Quercus asymetrica is a species of oak in the subgenus Cyclobalanopsis. It is found in China and Tonkin, Vietnam....
log, which turned out to be the largest fungal fruit body ever documented. The fruit body was found at an altitude of 958 metres (3,143 ft), in old-growth forest. They were initially unable to identify the specimen as F. ellipsoidea, because of its large size, but tests revealed its identity after samples were taken for analysis. After their initial encounter with the large fruit body, Cui and Dai returned to it on two subsequent occasions, so that they could study it further. Nicholas P. Money, executive editor of Fungal Biology, in which the findings were published, praised the pair for not removing the fruit body, thereby allowing it "to continue its business and to marvel visitors to Hainan Island". The discovery was formally published in Fungal Biology in September 2011, but gained attention in the mainstream press worldwide prior to this.
The fruit body was 20 years old, and up to 1085 cm (35.6 ft) long. It was between 82 and 88 cm (32.3 and 34.6 in) wide, and between 4.6 and 5.5 cm (1.8 and 2.2 in) thick. The total volume of the fruit body was somewhere between 409000 and 525000 cm³ (24,939 and 32,012.2 in3). It was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kg (881.8 and 1,102.3 lb), based on three samples from different areas of the fruit body. The specimen had an average of 49 pores per square millimetre, roughly equivalent to 425 million pores. Money estimated that, based on spore output from other polypore species, the fruit body would be able to release a trillion spores a day.
Prior to this discovery, the largest recorded fruit body of any fungus was a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius
Rigidoporus ulmarius
Rigidoporus ulmarius is a plant pathogen found mainly on broad-leaved trees. It used to be very common on elm.The fruiting bodies are white, knobbly and relatively hard, requiring a fair amount of force to break. Older bodies may be covered with green algae, or partially covered with vegetation and...
, found in Kew Gardens, United Kingdom. It measured 150 by in diameter, and had a circumference of 425 cm (167.3 in). While the largest individual fruit bodies belong to polypores, individual organisms belonging to certain Armillaria species can grow extremely large. In 2003, a large specimen of A. solidipes (synonymous with A. ostoyae) was recorded in the Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains (Oregon)
The Blue Mountains are a mountain range in the western United States, located largely in northeastern Oregon and stretching into southeastern Washington...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, covering an area of 965 hectares (2,384.6 acre). At the time, the organism was estimated to be 8650 years old. Prior to this, an A. gallica
Armillaria gallica
Armillaria gallica is a species of honey mushroom in the Physalacriaceae family of the Agaricales order. The species is a common and ecologically important wood-decay fungus that can live as a saprobe, or as an opportunistic parasite in weakened tree hosts to cause root or butt rot...
(synonymous with A. bulbosa) organism was the largest recorded, covering 15 hectares (37.1 acre), weighing approximately 9700 kilograms (21,384.8 lb). However, whilst these organisms cover a large area, the individual fruit bodies (the mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s) are not remarkably large, typically with stem
Stipe (mycology)
thumb|150px|right|Diagram of a [[basidiomycete]] stipe with an [[annulus |annulus]] and [[volva |volva]]In mycology a stipe refers to the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is composed of sterile hyphal...
s of up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in height and cap
Pileus (mycology)
The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...
s less than 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in diameter, weighing from 40 to 100 g (1.4 to 3.5 oz) each.
Chemistry
Petroleum ether
Petroleum ether, also known as benzine, VM&P Naphtha, Petroleum Naphtha, Naphtha ASTM, Petroleum Spirits, X4 or Ligroin, is a group of various volatile, highly flammable, liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as nonpolar solvents...
and (after defatting) chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
. The nine compounds isolated from these extracts included the common ergosterol
Ergosterol
Ergosterol is a sterol found in fungi, and named for ergot, a common name for the members of the fungal genus Claviceps from which ergosterol was first isolated. Ergosterol does not occur in plant or animal cells...
and its derivative
Derivative (chemistry)
In chemistry, a derivative is a compound that is derived from a similar compound by some chemical or physical process. In the past it was also used to mean a compound that can be imagined to arise from another compound, if one atom is replaced with another atom or group of atoms, but modern...
ergosterol peroxide
Ergosterol peroxide
Ergosterol peroxide is a steroid derivative. It has been isolated from a variety of fungi, yeast, lichens and sponges, and has been reported to exhibit immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antitumor activities....
. Two of the compounds, ergosta-7,22,25-triene-3-one and benzo[1,2-b:5,4-b']difuran-3,5-dione-8-methyl formate, were new to science. Several of the compounds were steroidal; such compounds play important physiological roles in cell membranes. Further, steroidal compounds can have pharmacological or taxonomical applications; for instance, some can act as anti-inflammatories (including ergosterol) or inhibit tumour growth. The study concluded that, as F. ellipsoidea contained a large number of diverse steroidal compounds, there may be comparatively high pharmacological activity in the fungus; however, more research would be needed to confirm this.