Pando (tree)

Pando (Latin for "I spread"), also known as the Trembling Giant, is a clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000,000 kilograms (6,600 short tons), making it the heaviest known organism. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms.

Pando is located 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Fish Lake on Utah's Route 25, in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest, at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in south-central Utah, United States.

Pando is currently thought to be dying. Though the exact reasons are not known, it is thought to be some combination of drought, insects and disease. The Western Aspen Alliance has been studying the tree in an effort to save it, and the U.S. Forest Service is currently experimenting with several 5-acre (2 ha) sections of it in an effort to find a means to save it.

Pando is thought to have grown for much of its lifetime under ideal circumstances: frequent forest fires have prevented its main competitor, conifers, from colonizing the area, and a climate shift from wet and humid to semi-arid has obstructed seedling establishment and the accompanying rivalry from younger aspens.

During intense fires, the organism survived underground, with its root system sending up new stems in the aftermath of each wildfire. If its postulated age is correct, the climate into which Pando was born was markedly different from that of today, and it may have been as many as 10,000 years since Pando's last successful flowering. Additionally, the post glacial climatic conditions have made it very problematic for new seeds to sprout. According to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report:

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