In Oregon's Malheur National Forest, a fungus spreads through tree roots across 2,200 acres, making it the largest living organism ever found. Popularly known as the honey mushroom, the Armillaria Ostoyae started from a single microscopic spore. Yet it's been weaving its black shoestring filaments through the forest for an estimated 2,400 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 U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon.

Digging into 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 this gigantic mushroom, sin began in a single act of disobedience but has spread across the entire human race.