Learn more

A massive blob lives in Utah and its name is Pando, which literally means “I spread”. The sprawling lump of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) has lived up to its name in spreading across 42.6 hectares (105.3 acres) in Fishlake National Forest with a network of 47,000 stems that were created through asexual reproduction, essentially making Pando a giant tangle of clones. That means it’s technically a single tree, one of the largest organisms on Earth, and we now know it’s one of the oldest, too. A preprint that has not yet undergone peer review looked at Pando’s genetic data and concluded tha…