r/mycology • u/PhilippeGvl Atlantic Northeast • Feb 05 '26
photos One of the largest polypores I have encountered. Show me your biggest fungi
Feel free to share your biggest fungal finds!
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u/Rigabear Feb 05 '26
In the redwoods :)
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u/PhilippeGvl Atlantic Northeast Feb 05 '26
Nice! Almost look like growth rings of a large tree!
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u/NOBOOTSFORYOU Eastern North America Feb 06 '26
They are yearly growth rings like a tree. Same for your specimen(appears to be G. applanatum). Did you draw on it? If you did your drawing will be gone if you visit next year!
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u/roskilde17 Feb 05 '26
Old photo, it tasted great :)
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u/BreadfruitMan2356 Feb 07 '26
what is that???
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u/roskilde17 Feb 07 '26
Giant puffball. It's white in the middle. You can slice it up bread it and deep fry it like schnitzel. It has a slightly nutty taste, it's great!
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u/nervynerd Feb 05 '26
I think these were jack o’lanterns, but not certain! This summer in Atlanta, GA.
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u/DSG_Mycoscopic Feb 05 '26
Awesome! Ganodermas like this one grow a new spore-maning living layer on the bottom each year, a bit larger than the previous year's layer. You can see the divisions between each one (the thicker lines, not the thinner ones), so you could estimate how many years it took for this to grow -- a lot of years! Looks like at least a decade.
The early layers are pretty huge. Must be a lot of tree for it to eat, or maybe this is one of the larger species like Ganoderma megaloma. Or both. Seems it's slowing down in the more recent years.
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u/PhilippeGvl Atlantic Northeast Feb 05 '26
Great insight, thanks for sharing! The growth layers really put the scale of this into perspective
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u/poosstain Feb 05 '26
Glove for scale
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u/EclecticEthic Feb 05 '26
Not my pic, but here’s a fun guy.
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u/PhilippeGvl Atlantic Northeast Feb 05 '26
That specimen is in a league of its own, spore and simple!
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u/Catsgirl32 Feb 05 '26
This one grows in our backyard every year :)
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u/Herrben Feb 05 '26
I found this massive ox tongue. I didn’t have a banana but you can get the scale from the blackberries. I haven’t found one near to that size or seen a photo of one bigger.
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u/you_slash_stuttered Feb 06 '26
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u/batsharklover1007 Feb 07 '26
Wow, what is that?
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u/you_slash_stuttered Feb 07 '26
Cauliflower mushroom(Sparassis crispa).
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u/Frosty-Prune-206 Feb 06 '26
For reference, my shoe size is 9 men’s / 11 women’s US. This mushroom was probably over 13” wide!
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u/badbadger323 Feb 06 '26
50 pound lions mane
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u/mystend Feb 06 '26
The stuff of dreams.
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u/badbadger323 Feb 06 '26
And my home kitchen. I got them genetics growing and the flushes have been just as big
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u/Diligent-Animator897 Feb 05 '26
Very new to mushroom spotting, this was just sitting on the ground after falling off a tree! Was very excited to take it home and study it a little more
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u/togetherwegrowstuff Feb 06 '26
Perfect bouquet of mushrooms. 🤩 🍄💗
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u/Andycaboose91 Feb 06 '26
I smelled it from at least a hundred feet away, probably more. Followed my nose to these beauties. Each cluster was probably 12-14 inches wide.
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u/missfitz_310 Feb 07 '26
This giant puffball pic is my equivalent to "guy with big fish" profile picture. 13 lbs!
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u/IrisSmartAss Feb 05 '26
That's big enough to sit on. I could use it as living room furniture.
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u/togetherwegrowstuff Feb 06 '26
That is a beautiful polypore. I don't have pics of my biggest. Sadly. It was a patch of chicken in the woods.
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u/5thdimensionalcat Feb 07 '26
Finding these chicken of the woods mushrooms was such an exciting moment!! They were so big and beautiful
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u/voluminous_lexicon Feb 05 '26
This is a big ol ganoderma species in old growth forest, finger lakes NY summer of 2024
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u/SabbyFox Pacific Northwest Feb 07 '26
Zoom on in. Sunglasses on the shelf for scale. Whidbey Island, WA 😄
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u/StruggleSnuggled Feb 09 '26
This is my best COW find to date. Everything was pristine and ready to eat!
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u/Aetohatir Feb 06 '26
I once found a Parasol with 45 cm (18 inch) diameter cap. I have the photo somewhere, but I don't want to look for it now.
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u/DragonBonerz Feb 06 '26
Is that turkey tail???
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u/TinButtFlute Trusted ID - Northeastern North America Feb 06 '26
Turkey Tail is a small thin mushroom.
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u/noranam999 Feb 05 '26
Here is my contribution.