Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 12, 2013

Fomitiporia ellipsoidea is a species of polypore fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae, a specimen of which produced the largest fungal fruit body ever recorded. Found in China, the fruit bodies produced by the species are brown, woody basidiocarps that feed on dead wood and can grow very large under favourable circumstances. They measure 30 centimetres (12 in) or more in length, though typically extending less than a centimetre from the surface of the wood. A number of chemical compounds have been isolated from the species, including several steroidal compounds. These may have pharmacological applications, but further research is needed. The species was first recorded in 2008 by Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai in Fujian Province; it was revealed in 2011 that they had found a very large fruit body, measuring up to 1,085 cm (427 in) in length, on Hainan Island. The specimen (pictured), which was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kilograms (880 and 1,100 lb). This was markedly larger than the previous record holder, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius found in the United Kingdom, which had a circumference of 425 cm (167 in). (Full article...)

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