SPREADING
HONEY MUSHROOM

Topics: Human Condition; Human Nature; Original Sin; Sin

References: Romans 5:12–21; 1 Corinthians 15:19–26

In Oregon’s Malheur National Forest, a fungus has spread through tree roots across twenty-two hundred acres, making it the largest living organism ever found. The Armillaria Ostoyae, also called “honey mushroom,” started from a single microscopic spore. Yet it has been weaving its black shoestring filaments through the forest for an estimated twenty-four hundred years, killing trees as it grows.

“When you’re on the ground, you don’t notice the pattern. You just see dead trees in clusters,” says Tina Dreisbach, a botanist and mycologist [botanist of fungi] with the United States Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon.

In the roots of an affected tree, researchers find something that looks like white latex paint. These are mats of mycelium, which draw water and carbohydrates from the tree to feed the fungus and interfere with the tree’s absorption of nutrients. The shoestring filaments, called rhizomorphs, stretch as much as ten feet into the soil, invading tree roots through a combination of pressure and enzyme action.

Like the honey mushroom, sin began in a single act of disobedience but has spread across the entire human race.

—Gary Stewart, “How Sin Has Spread,” PreachingToday.com