Pando is the heaviest living organism in the world. It is a grove of 47 000 male quaking aspen trees, all with the same genetic makeup! Pando has been living in Fishlake National Forest, in Utah for up to 80 000 years. It spreads across 106 acres of land and weighs around 13 million pounds, making it the heaviest living organism in the world.
How Pando Formed
According to USDA forest service an aspen grove is really only one tree. The trees have formed into this giant over a long time, but it originally came from one male aspen spreading its roots to make other identical trees. These aspens don’t grow like a normal tree would. Instead of having seeds, Pando is made of one single root system. This is called vegetative reproduction. The plant horizontally sends out stems or roots that after time will start growing upwards into a new plant, but will have the same roots and be the clone of its parent. This specific clone of aspens was named after this process, because Pando in Latin that means “I spread”. I mentioned that Pando has been living for 80 000 years, but each tree only lives up to 150 years old.
What are Quaking Aspens?
You might have noticed these types of trees in Northern America. With their white trunks and green or yellow leaves, it is almost impossible to miss! Quaking aspens are normally spotted with a group of identical trees. A quaking aspen is a fast growing tree that grows to be pretty tall (20-25 meters). Its bark is very smooth, and has black scars or knots along. If you see vertical scars, it could mean that an elk has striped off some of it’s bark with its front teeth! In the summer and spring their leaves are green, but when fall comes, they turn an amazing yellow. This type of tree got its name from its leaves, because when there is even the slightest wind, they make a fluttering noise.
Pando is Dying
According to Paul Rogers, an ecologist at the Utah state university, Pando is dying. Out of the 47 000 trees there are only 85 one-year-olds. As the trees get older, they start to die due to age, but Pando’s new sprouts have not been surviving either. In other words, there has been a low regeneration. As the trees die out, they aren’t getting replaced, and soon enough Pando won’t be so big anymore. It’s no surprise though, aspens are being threatened because of fires and climate change all over the world. They have been studying this and noticed that the decline in aspens is not happening in acreage, it’s just thinning throughout the forest.
No one is exactly sure why Pando is dying. One of the most common theories is that it’s because of the deer and elk. Deer in the area tend to eat the young aspens before they become string enough to defend themselves. Also, when the animals graze, they can make it hard for new sprouts to grow, but this isn’t as big of an effect as the deer. To prevent this, rangers of the forest are doing a study by putting a fence around 90 acres of the trees to keep animals out, so they can see if the aspens will be able to keep sprouting without the animals in their way. So far the study has been effective.
Another theory to why Pando is dying is simply because it’s just getting old. Or that it has a fungus that is preventing it from growing new shoots. They will also try to help Pando grow by taking out some of the juniper in the forest because it could be out competing with the regeneration of the aspens. But some the research team thinks it could be from human development in the area too, like building cabins and hiking trails in and around the clone of aspens.
Conclusion
The trees are all one big clone of quaking aspens that all share one root system! As Pando is the heaviest living organism, it makes it an interesting, beautiful spot to check out. Especially since not many people know about it, so it’s never busy. Just because Pando is dying, it is doesn’t change its incredibleness. Pando is just a peaceful, amazing forest that everyone should get a chance to visit.