Mushroom of Omlek 4

The Mushroom of Omlek 4, also known as the Teelianic Megashroom, is a giant fungal organism on the planet Omlek 4 growing on the shore of the Teelianic Ocean.

The organism's fruiting body reaches a height of 971 meters above sea level and is one of the largest recorded fruiting bodies for any fungal lifeform, while its extensive mycelium reaches hundreds of kilometers around it, extracting nutrition both on land and in the ocean.

Discovery

The lifeform was initially encountered by a survey group of New Colonization Era Royal Space Administration planetary prospectors, led by well known Orcish explorer Regneb An-Melenk XVI. Biologists in the survey team originally thought the visible protrusions of the organism's mycelium observed on land were the primary fruiting bodies of a fungus of slightly above-normal size. It was only when they approached the Teelianic shoreline and saw the Megashroom towering in the horizon that they realized the actual scale of the lifeform.

In popular culture

The Mushroom of Omlek 4 is referred to in many classic songs and other traditional media of the Omlek/7.G cultural region. In particular, the ballad In the Shadow of the Shroom by Zeevlik OneHead and the folk song Grown on the Shore written by early Omlekian colonists have been famous for generations on Omlek 4.

The organism is also featured in the Great Seal of Omlek, the official seal of the System Council.

Preservation

After the organism became something of a tourist attraction for the planet, regulations were established to ensure its well being. The HFed Nature Preservation and Evolutionary Regulations Commission later defined the Teelianic Natural Exclusion Zone around the organism to preserve it from contamination.