In Fishlake National Forest, Sevier County, Utah, wind moves quaking aspens that look like an ordinary grove.
Pando comes from Latin for "I spread." It is also called the Trembling Giant.
At first glance, these are separate trees.
They are not.
About 47,000 stems rise from one shared root system. Each is a genetically identical part of a single tree. When a stem dies, the root system sends up a new one. That is suckering: growth from the root system, not from a seed.
US Forest Service researchers tested plant tissue and proved Pando is one organism.
Karen Mock, a researcher who studied Pando, expected several separate clones, as in other aspen stands.
"I was wrong. Pando is a ginormous single clone."
A single stem lives about 130 years.
The organism may be up to 14,000 years old.
It weighs about 13.2 million pounds (6,000 metric tons) and covers 106 acres. By mass, it is three times the General Sherman sequoia and the largest organism on Earth by weight.
What is that weight?
About a thousand African elephants, held by roots under a whole forest, not standing in one place.
From the side, Pando is many trees.
Under the soil, it is one being.
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