Fungi

Fungi are extraordinary organisms that do not require sunlight to grow. These wonderful and complex forms are neither plants, nor animals. Unlike plants fungi do not contain chlorophyll and therefore cannot photosynthesise, they do however, breakdown materials such as plants and animal remains; something we call rotting. Fungi are therefore essential recyclers who return nutrients back to the soil. Many people think that the fruiting body (Toadstool/Mushroom) is all that there is, but in reality they can be a part of an enormous network of threadlike mycelium, some of which have been found to cover as much as two thousands acres. Considering fungi only spread by twenty or thirty centimetres a year, it would take well over a thousand years to reach this size, making fungi not only the largest living organism on the earth, but also the oldest.