Fungus Among Us - World's Largest Organism

I don't know about you, but I take it personally when science changes its mind about things I thought I knew as facts. Brontosaurus is not a real, correct species name?! Pluto is no longer a planet of our solar system?! The blue whale is not the largest organism on earth?! Aaaarrrrggghhhh!

That largest organism thing makes the mighty blue whale seem positively miniscule. In Oregon's Blue Mountains is a fungus that spreads over just about four square miles, or 2,384 acres (a blue whale is a measly 110 feet long). The giant "Armillaria ostoyae" is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as much as 8,650 years old. It's kind of a rough character, as well. The fungal species causes a root disease that kills off entire stands of conifers in regions of the US and Canada. It grows along tree roots, wrapping tiny filaments around them, then actually excretes digestive enzymes that kill the host tree--it is, in a sense, eating forests! The huge example in Oregon is all cellularly and genetically connected, so it is technically one individual organism, affectionately named "the Humongous Fungus." Kind of makes me re-think those Shiitake mushrooms I was going to stir fry tonight...

In a further insult to my sixth-grade foot stamping mandate that the things I learned be true and constant...the blue whale isn't even in second place for largest organism...there is a 6,615-ton colony of a male quaking aspen tree and its clones on a Utah mountainside that qualifies as one organism covering 107 acres.

Now, about this global warming thing...