Until, well, right now, we thought Pando was the largest living organism on Earth. Pando is a clonal colony of quaking aspen and is 80,000 years old. Which also makes it the oldest living organism on Earth.
Turns out we're wrong. And if you are guessing "it's in the sea" you would be right!
The largest known living organism on Earth is now (and I'm stressing known, because, well) a clonal colony of sea grass off of Australia's west coast. the colony, which is a hybrid of two seagrass species, covers 77 square miles. That's three times the size of Manhattan.
Clonal colonies are wild. This is like one of those old science fiction novels where an entire planet is covered by one.
At a guess, the colony is 4,500 years old. The plant is a sterile hybrid.
In contrast, poor Pando only covers 43 hectares.
There is no nickname for the seagrass yet, but I am betting there will be one. I think it deserves a name, don't you?
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