The biggest and most amazing mushrooms of Ukraine

The fungal kingdom is full of records that not everyone knows about. Right next to familiar boletes grow mushrooms the size of a ball, woody "shelves" that are several years old, and hidden mycelia that lay claim to the title of the largest living organism on Earth.

We've gathered the biggest and most amazing mushrooms you can come across in Ukraine and around the world.

The giant puffball

The biggest mushroom you can realistically find in a Ukrainian forest is the giant puffball (Calvatia). Its white ball reaches 20–50 cm across, and record specimens weigh several kilograms. It's edible when young, while the flesh is white and springy; for more on puffballs and bovists, see our separate article.

Perennial bracket fungi

Bracket fungi — the "shelf" mushrooms on tree trunks — don't die back every year but keep growing season after season. Some flat bracket fungi live for several years and reach 40–50 cm across. Among them there are also edible species, like young chicken of the woods.

The fastest mushroom

The record holder for speed of growth is the common stinkhorn: it sometimes stretches from its "egg" into a full-grown mushroom in just a few hours. For more on what the stinkhorn looks like, see our separate article.

The largest organism on Earth

The most amazing record belongs not to a fruiting body but to mycelium. A honey fungus in the USA (Oregon) has a mycelium that covers thousands of hectares and weighs, by estimates, hundreds of tons — one of the largest and oldest living organisms on the planet. For more on how long mycelium lives, see our separate article.

Sources

• “Key to the Fungi of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Calvatia gigantea on Wikipedia.
• Armillaria on Wikipedia.