The Largest and Oldest Living Thing in the World: PANDO the Quaking Aspen
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- #largestorganism #pando #aspen
In the Mountain forests of fishlake national forest in central Utah lives what is one of the worlds largest and oldest organisms on the planet. Covering nearly 44 hectares, and probably weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 million kilograms, this is Pando, a quaking aspen grove. Now you might be saying, these are different trees, and yes Pando is made up of nearly 40,000 different stems, but underground they are all interconnected with a single root system and all genetically identical, so the grove is really a single massive colonial male aspen. Cloning is the main way aspen spread over the landscape, with each individual clone stem having a lifespan of around 100 years, before being replaced by younger stems, thus in theory a single aspen grove is basically immortal. The dieback of old trees also makes aging Pando nearly impossible, as tree rings only work on the stems, not the ancient root system. Current thinking suggests that Pando germinated from a seed as glaciers retreated from the last glacial maximum, roughly 16,000-14,000 years ago, making Pando far older than any other tree, and older than human civilization itself. Pando though does have some fierce competition for the title largest and oldest organism; in Oregon an individual colonial Armillaria ostoyae fungus covers just over 900 hectare, but the dry weight of the threadlike mycelia, apparently don’t quite add up to the weight of Pando’s wood, roots, and leaves, and it is far younger. The only other major competitor for Pando’s title is a patch of Neptune Grass in the Mediteranean, that is apparently 5 kilometers across, and could be upwards of 100,000 years old.
sources
DeWoody, Jennifer; Rowe, Carol A.; Hipkins, Valerie D.; Mock, Karen E. (2008). ""Pando" Lives: Molecular Genetic Evidence of a Giant Aspen Clone in Central Utah". Western North American Naturalist. 68(4): 493-497. doi:10.3398/1527-0904-68.4.493. S2CID 59135424.
Ding, Chen; Schreiber, Stefan G.; Roberts, David R.; Hamann, Andreas; Brouard, Jean S. (2017-07-05). "Post-glacial biogeography of trembling aspen inferred from habitat models and genetic variance in quantitative traits". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 4672. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04871-7. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5498503. PMID 28680120.
Vince Patton (12 February 2015). "Oregon Humongous Fungus Sets Record As Largest Single Living Organism On Earth (7 minute documentary video)". Oregon Field Guide. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
Mihai, Andrei (9 February 2015). "The Heaviest Living Organism in the World". ZME Science. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
Ibiza Spotlight (28 May 2006). "Ibiza's Monster Marine Plant". Archived from the original on 27 August 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
Rogers, Paul C.; Gale, Jody A. (2017). "Restoration of the iconic Pando aspen clone: Emerging evidence of recovery". Ecosphere. 8 (1): e01661. doi:10.1002/ecs2.1661.
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Welcome to Ecotasia! On this channel you can find wildlife footage and short documentaries on the natural world. I am an early career biologist who was inspired by the likes of the BBC Natural History unit, PBS, and Animal Planet as a child and then more recently by various nature RUclips channels to share my love for animals and nature. My goal is to document and highlight the interesting ecology and behavior of organisms I encounter, as well as cover and elucidate conservation and biological topics. Please Subscribe so you can join me to marvel and to learn twice a month.
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#learning
I wish pando could talk, imagine the stories trees would tell.
True
Oh it would be so interesting, I really want to do a video with that sort of premise at some point, maybe with a bristlecone or redwood.
Pando could help lost kids (and adults) get back to their family
Weir woods
I would be very devastating ....he would tell what have humanity done to this earth 🌎
I just visited Pando for the first time (September 2023). Bucket list item. It occurred to me that in the known universe, trees are more rare than diamonds. It felt like an honor.
this feels like an SCP
Scp 7890 The Tree Hive-Mind
Holy shit I think it is an scp
Please take a break from the internet
@@ToxicAutisticTrash who hurt you
@@ToxicAutisticTrash - signed “toxic”
💀
I love it when people get romantic about nature. That bit about Pando relative to human civilization was great.
Weird that this single organism mutated to become literally immortal and enormous!
most trees in this genus grow like this, Pando just is older the rest
It did not mutate. God created it this way. The roots give rise to different trees...
@@mrmusi4512even though we have quite alot of proof that evolution is what happened
@mrmusi4512 your boys a scientist not a God.
@@platonic_polyhedra we have no evidence of evolution as over the entire course of human history we have yet to see one specie become a separate and distinct one that could no longer interbreed with it's parent species. These evolutionary jumps just do not make any sense, because it would be hundreds of changes happening at the same time at the DNA level, not just one and the fossil record backs that up which means it is either not evolution OR something is doing gene editing on them directly...it is NOT evidence of evolution. I don't like the "its aliens" idea either, but it's much more likely that than "evolution" which can not possibly happen in the way the fossil record "evidence" suggests. A little critical thinking would be good instead of just blindly accepting what you're told by people in authority with an agenda. I'm much more on board with the idea that humanity did it, and that high tech civilization was destroyed and we're just now getting to that level again.
It's incredible to see this tree survived humans
It probably will if we won't destroy it.
@@amadeosendiulo2137 whats incredible is humans somehow left it undamaged
Luckily this tree can't die even with human intervention it's "heart" lives deep deep deep underground and even fire can't kill it
This tree witness a lot of things
I had no idea about Pando, that is absolutely fascinating! Plants can be really cool, I need to learn more about them. Great mini doc JJ!
- Harrison and Evan
Plants are super cool, I really regret not taking Botany at university
This was a great video, I've known about Pando and have wanted to visit for quite some time but I learned so much from this video and now I can't wait to someday stand in the presence of a tree so ancient and massive. Excellent work
It was a really amazing experience I have wanted to have for a very long time
I'd heard about this before, but it blows my mind every time.
I want to go there and pay my respect to such a cool being
Yes, it was so cool to visit this tree, especially as the fall colors began
I’ve been led to believe that Redwoods are second only to cycads as the oldest thing on Earth. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read this.
Yeah, these clonal organisms kind of cheat, where some of the conifers out was are thousands of years old as a single tree
It started from 1 seed. The worlds heaviest organism in the world.
Maybe historical humans accidentally protected Pando by predation on the local deer population?
Hmm yes a Tree Hive-Mind sounds like some kind of cursed Sci-Fi movie
Super cool!!! Great little video!
It was a really cool experience to finally go there and film it for the channel. Trying to show off the wilds of Utah to everyone
Didn’t know about the black scarring. Thanks for that info! Time to plan a trip to the Pandos
I'm in Canada, visiting an area with lots of Aspen, and I am mesmerized by them and had to google it to learn more :)
Subscribed.. your voice and video was very informative and soothing
thank you
Very informational!
Thanks
Very nice video! Thank you for your time and effort. I'm in Germany and the best part of my day is walking in nature. 🥰
Thank you for posting this! Similar to The Wild Fires' comment, I've been fascinated recently with Pando and hope to visit it some day!
Pando is a very neat forest, had wanted to visit for years myself.
For the last two and a half years, Friends of Pando has been working on the Pando Photographic Survey, a project to capture the entire 106 acres with 360 cameras and publish the record for everyone to enjoy. The team used survey equipment and insta360 pro cameras to take a 360 picture every seven meters. The lead photographer and head of the project, Lance Oditt is currently in the process of processing and stitching the thousands of photos together and will begin publishing the record in sections as they are completed. Once the survey is complete, even people who can't visit pando in person, will be able to visit it virtually.
@@hopesmith1803 That's so exciting!
Didn’t know about this. Thank you for informing me.
your welcome
I wonder if someone made their house here at pando a stem will grow through the house
Thank you. Very good. Nina
Thank you so much
Beautyful! This is masjestic
Thank you
Good information.
Thanks
Imagine there we're supposed to be more of these seeds but was lost
Yeah... they are lost in ice age... and Pando is sole survivor of his species...
AMAZING✌🏻😲
Thanks
I have quaking aspen on my property, the areas i stop mowing become groves of them, i never thought they could be thousands of years old.
El panorama es magnífico los árboles la fauna todo love. Mi friend nivel vdo.
Gracias
This is amazing
Thank You!
Welcome to Riften.
I have these quaking Aspen in our front yard, it's invading
Thats too bad they are invasive. They are quite beautiful
Cool
I thought the mycelium was amazing and it is. So is this. Our definition and understanding of consciousness must evolve with new facts.
***Life Is Eternal and Love is Immortal,
And Death is only a Horizon, And a Horizon is Nothing Save the Limits of our Sight***
My sister has quaking aspens on her property. REALLY LOUD!
I think it can easily outlive all of us.
I like Pando 🤗
Long live Pando!
An amazing Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Overstory, by Richard Powers, has a bit on this.
Pando is my god now. I pray to the Pando
This is earth’s master oogway
I wonder if the road way cut the roots off from side to side
Maybe, the grove does seem to be on either side but cannot be good for the health of the tree
Are there any research papers or science literature about this?? I want to know more
The internet
I'm painting Pando right now
that souds amazing!
Now think about this that the planet pandora in avatar also shows similar properties to pando meaning it roots are connected to each other, which could mean that pandora was named after pando. May be real may be not🤣
I think not quite, Pandora is named for Pandora's box in Greek mythology, while Pando is Latin for "I spread" as pan means something like spread, all, or world.
Probably not, but a cool theory anyway.
That is exactly why hunters are good for the environment. With proper regulation and oversight, hunting acts as a substitute for the ordinary predators we drove off long ago.
how absolutely stupid. Hunters are who KILLED the natural predators and their expansion destroyed the deers grazing and what was left was gobbled up by the HUNTERS cattle.
Its all the dame organism? 😦
Tree Beard was in the background, just lurking....
February Fun Fact #6 😉
Is it possible to give herbivors another nutrition without they should eat Pando in order to survive? I think it is always this type of situation: in order to live peacefully with animals, maybe the solution is to give them back their part of the nature, fruits and vegetables, for them to eat biovegan, because they probably don't have sufficiently nutrition to live. If they can eat sufficiently, agriculture reserving their part of fruits and vegetables, giving them back their fruity trees and so on, maybe should they not eat human nutrition and eat, for example, Pando, they can evidently love as much as human people love Pando.
gee and here I`m thinking it was uncle Herbie.
one time I went camping near fish lake and I was surrounded by Pando so i decided to proclaim my dominance over the biggest organism in the world and I peed on that sucker
Nature really just be making anything now
All my homies love pando
Yay!
He sounds like the Daily Dose guy.
Does they produce seeds??
Usually only after stressful events, we had a fire in an area of aspens, and the year after they seeded, usually they just clone.
@@Ecotasia woah thanks for the information❣️, i would love to obtain a seed from pando tree and plant here in my country, because of deforestation their is always soil erosion happening near our village when raining season comes. But i think its prohibited by the law
@@aloffvalkyrie4001 i am sure there is a native tree to your country that you could try planting, soil stabilization is so important
To help save Pando how about getting rid of the cattle, giving the deer their grazing land BACK and reintroducing the natural predators (not hunters).
Idk about being older than human civilization, but good information 👀
I believe he means modern human civilization. 6,000 years ago, potentially 10,000-12,000 with the discovery of gobleki tepe and karahan tepe depending on what becomes agreed upon. Although anatomically modern humans have existed much longer than Pando.
@@Raper_of_Trolls we don't even know how old it is, and "humans" are only around 100k year old,
@@stefthorman8548 we don't "know" how old it is, but using methods developed by scientists they estimate it's around 80,000 which is indeed younger than anatomical humans at about 100,000 (which by the way is also an estimate considering archaeologists are continually finding older and older modern anatomical human remains) which I never denied. Btw we also don't "know" if gravity exists, but i still haven't been flung off earth so I'll trust science's theories on that one...Also read my point again because you're just repeating the other half of the same argument I just made. Humans as a modern atomically similar species are much older that Pando, at 100,000 as you already stated and we both seem to agree upon. Humans as modern societal beings (ie: anatomically modern, create permanent settlements, and farm) are potentially between 6000-12000 years old, which is not older than Pando, which I also stated. So not sure what exactly it is you're conjecting because we apparently agree upon the same information.
I wonder who win a war between Pando and the great barrier reef
pando is horrifying to me.
Ngl I’ll carve my name in one of the stems, it’s the largest organism ever, I got to lol
It's not a try but maybe it's moss on a very huge level
THE BIGGEST BOI
Pando is mushroom tree!
Or that is what i think it is.
i like that
Nice little documentary as you say. I have subscribed as you instructed. Your narration needs a little more intonation to make it easy listening. Otherwise terrific. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, and thanks for the criticism.
Immortal? But doesn't It lack genetic variety? Doesn't that make It susceptible and vulnerable to new diseases?
yes, eventually a disease or a change in the environment can kill Pando, but not because the roots will get too old.
@@Ecotasia I see. Since we are already on It, I have another question If you don't mind.
Why clones? Is It accurate to call the stems that way just because they are genetically identical? Like, since they are a segment of a single plant, wouldn't It be the same as calling an N leaf on X branch a clone of an A leaf on Y branch just because the have the same genes?
Also, is It the only specimen with a colony like that or not?
@@turinmormegil7715 many plants and Aspens especially are like this. Yeah it is interesting, i think clones are used because like, they appear to be different trees if you didn't know about the single root system and all sharing the same DNA
@@Ecotasia I see.
Thanks for taking the time. Have a good one
This is the tree version of Djengis Khan
This is OP, and it was made like that intentionally by the Developer to humble casuals.
There’s something upsetting about that
I think they need their own category...as you heard none of the original plant remains intact...the "stems" are all clones....and really doesn't compare to the ultra rare ancient trees that are still here in the same spot centuries later....
When you look at an individual tree thats estimated to be over 1,000 years old and its all twisted and gnarled, and that specific tree has actually weathered 1000 winters and summers...the storms, the wind, the rain, not to mention the animals and man that have lived and moved around it...and in some cases on it...just imagine how many birds called it home?
It is certainly interesting to see a single plant has managed to sustain numerous copies of itself over a long period of time. However, in my opinion it does not evoke the same power, wonder, mystery, of a singular ancient tree, the mere sight of which seems to translate its passage of time to a place in our soul that transcends words.
but the root system under ground is that old, expanding from the same spot, but yes their is a slight difference to doing out and seeing a couple thousand year old tree and being able to like see that vs standing above an ancient root system
I thinks it's more powerful knowing this is essentially immortal compared to the 1000 year old tree which everyday gets closer to returning to dirt.
They wouldn't get a word in for all the clapping.
Very cool but not older than people being there based on germinating time stated... Blue fish caves has evidence of people being there 25000 years ago
Aren't all the trees basically clones of one another?
yes, but interconnected as one under the ground
Open pando up for hunting.
29 like
don't blame the deer it's humans that have been abusing the environment for centuries - exponential destruction, manipulation, pollution and exploitation of both animal and plant life.
You should recheck how old you think human civilization is. Honestly, we could have planted that.
civilization is not the same as the age of humans or bands of hunter gatherers, which is characterized by generally writing, power of the state, urbanization, and social stratification, those did not exist until after Pando had been around for a few thousand years.
Older dan human civilization ? ., the human race started around 300,000 years ago
Civilization is younger than humans, it is a very specific word meaning a complex society involving cities and societal stratification. This definitely makes me think of a class I just had about common vs technical definitions though, I have a bit of a jargon problem i think and that can be confusing and thank you for reminding me of that
276th
Aight arm up lads lets hunt some deer and preserve some tree
I don`t believe it, every forest has connected roots, we just need to leave nature alone and mind our own busness..
Well through fungi yes all forests are interconnected. Pando, is one interconnected root system of aspen sharing the same DNA.
If we leave nature alone we don't learn from it.
We're not metric.
Bring back the wolves and put an end to grazing on public lands!
Yeah! 🐺
Two roads diverged,
In yellow wood