Question #149191. Asked by
BigTriviaDawg.
Last updated Mar 28 2023.
Originally posted Mar 26 2023 8:00 PM.
The largest single living organism based on area is a specimen of Posidonia australis seagrass (aka Poseidon's ribbon weed) located in Shark Bay off Western Australia, covering approximately 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) - equivalent to around 28,000 soccer fields or more than 450 times bigger than Vatican City, the world's smallest country. The superlative seagrass meadow was described in a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 1 June 2022.
This claims the title of largest organism from a specimen of Armillaria ostoya honey mushroom - known colloquially as the "Humongous Fungus" - growing in the Malheur National Forest of Oregon, USA, which occupies 965 ha (2,385 acres). It retains its title as the world's largest fungus.
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