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Name : Pando
position : Fishlake National Forest , Utah
Pando is a colony of aspen stems that originate from a single giant root network.
Coordinates:38.52444764419252 , -111.75068313176233
Why it ’s incredible : Pando look like a woodland , but it ’s actually one giant tree diagram .
Pando is an ancient quake aspen tree ( Populus tremuloides ) with 47,000 genetically identical stems , or tree trunks , connect to a vast hole-and-corner root organisation . Each root word is a clon of the one next to it and originates from a single cum that started growing up to 80,000 age ago during thelast ice age .
The Pando aspen clone extends across 106 acres.
Pando — Latin for " I spread " — is the largest known tree on Earth and the heaviest life being on phonograph record . The colony poke out over 106 acres ( 43 hectare ) and weigh an estimated 6,500 ton ( 5,900 metrical ton ) , which is equivalent to 40 blue whales or three prison term theworld ’s largest single - stem tree — California ’s General Sherman giant redwood ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ) .
relate : take heed to the sounds of Pando , the large livelihood tree diagram in the world
Researchers realized that Pando is a single being in the 1970s , and geneticists have since confirmed that what looks to the untrained oculus like a timberland is actually one giant clone , fit in to the U.S.Forest Service . A late deoxyribonucleic acid analysis of hundreds of tree samples advise Pando is between 16,000 and 80,000 years honest-to-god , making it one of the oldest living organisms in the world — although that research , which was published Oct. 24 , 2024 to thepreprint database bioRxiv , has not yet been peer reexamine .
Some of Pando ’s prow are more than 130 years old , accord to the Forest Service , and the industrial plant should ceaselessly regenerate the parts of itself that shrivel and perish . But that has n’t been the sheath in late years .
Pando reproduces asexually , creating clones of itself rather than mixing its DNA with that of other trees . The root word system produces genetically identical shoots that get upward , filling in the gaps between stems and keeping the plant alive for thousands of years . But harmonize to a2018 study , aerial images taken of Pando over a stop of 72 years show stark star sign of descent , including larger gaps in the canopy and aging stanch that are n’t being replaced by younger unity .
" Imagine walking into a town of 50,000 mass where everybody in township was 85 years old,“Paul Rogers , an auxiliary fellow prof of ecology at Utah State University and director of theWestern Aspen Alliance , toldNational Geographicin 2022 . " That ’s sort of the offspring with Pando . "
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The chief culprits for this decay areanimals that consume aspen shoots , allot to the 2018 cogitation . Mule deer and cows that graze in Utah ’s Fishlake National Forest are chomping off the top of sapling and killing newfangled development fast than the plant can compensate for . Wolves , bear and panther used to keep the cervid population in impediment , but humans have now eliminated most of these piranha .
Pests and diseases are also attacking Pando , with root rot as well bacterial and fungal infection pretend the stems , according to the Forest Service . " Another thought is that the Pando is just sometime and does n’t have the energy reserves to transmit up suckering [ refreshing new shoots ] , " Kurt Robins , a district ranger of Fishlake National Forest , said in a telecasting .
Aspen stands like Pando support extremely diverse fauna and plant community and form an integral part of the ecosystem . " We bet at the aspen as a key species for what they bring home the bacon on the landscape painting , " Robins said .
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