Of all things, it's deer who threatens its survival. Centrally located in Utah, it only looks like a living forest but is really one living root system.

"The largest and oldest living organism on Earth is the Pando clone, a quaking aspen colony of over 47,000 trees in Utah that stretches over 106-acres, weighs 13 million pounds, and is 80,000 years old.

Pando is Latin for spread, or extend, and that’s just what Pando does. A single root system connects the trees, which emerged from one seed a millennia ago. An enormous expanse of genetically identical sprouts are linked underground, growing into unfortunately tasty treats for the many mule deer in the region.

The grove has almost as many monikers as tentacles. It’s also called “the trembling giant,” for the quaking aspen’s Latin appellation populus tremuloides. Despite the trees’ trembling leaves, Pando isn’t that fragile, or it wouldn’t have survived so long and spread so far and wide. But it is tired, so foresters are helping the organism relax and rejuvenate.

“If we had a community of 50,000 people and every one of them was over 80 years of age, we wouldn’t have a very sustainable community,” Paul Rogers, an ecologist at Utah State University and the director of the Western Aspen Alliance, told Live Science.

“That is exactly what we’re looking at with the Pando clone….The system is not replacing itself; it’s highly out of balance.”
Unlike other forests, a cloned organism like the trembling giant in Utah can’t be replanted. It must be regenerated.

The colony is stressed by changes to the environment which scientists say were initially prompted by humans. Now it’s herbivores that directly threaten Pando. Wolf populations that once preyed on deer in the region have been eliminated, leaving the deer to brazenly enjoy the grove’s young sprouts for decades.

The deer are primarily to blame for Pando’s stress, says Rogers. He’s been working with the US Forest Service on rerouting the creatures and preserving the natural treasure with a simple measure—fencing. According to researchers, it works. “As part of a larger project to restore Pando, we fenced, treated, and monitored a portion of this famous grove with the intent of documenting regeneration responses and using such practices at larger scales,” he explained in a paper in Ecosphere early this year."

https://qz.com/1151730/the-worlds-largest-and-oldest-organism-is-super-stressed-out/

This reminds me of the oldest, largest Wisteria vine growing in the world. Located in Sierra Madre, in southern California. It's absolutely gorgeous. (Likewise, seeing footage of the Aspen grove in central Utah is breathtakingly beautiful.)

https://cdn.deseretnews.com/images/article/hires/225181/225181.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/gaeln/5769888/524153/524153_600.jpg

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/05/06/pando_the_trembling_giant_is_a_forest_of_cloned_quaking_aspens/pando.jpg.CROP.promo-large2.jpg

"World's largest blossoming Wistaria Vine in Southern California. Weighs 250 tons, grows about one acres, 1.5 million blossoms during its 5-week bloom season and 119 years old."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsfNzImZurg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2017 05:12PM by Amyjo.

"Aspen tree bark is to Elk what chocolate is to humans: A great treat which; although strictly speaking, is unnecessary to sustain life, makes life richer. Elk, unlike humans, lack self-restraint. Left to themselves they will strip the bark off an Aspen tree. Naked Aspen trees, like naked humans, will die in a Rocky Mountain winter.

And that has been a problem in Yellowstone National Park and other places in the Rockies since mankind decided to eradicate wolves. Recently we looked at a book by the publishers of Outdoor Life, written in the early 1950’s. In it was a painting of a wolf, along with an article which ended looking forward to the day when a hunter shot the last living wolf for, “The only good wolf is a dead wolf.” There is no doubt that the author of the piece was filled with the best of intentions, believing wolves pestilential.

As is so often the case in humanity’s history, we are reminded of a well-known road paved with good intentions.

We pretty much eradicated wolves from Yellowstone and the Rockies. But wolves eat elk. About one a month per wolf. Because the wolves were gone, elk lost their main predator and multiplied in great numbers. Lacking self-restraint, they ate Aspens at a prodigious rate. The Aspens died. Soon Yellowstone was almost bereft of Aspens. Birds lost protected perches where they could rest from their arduous migrations but still have a good field of view to protect themselves from their predators.

Then recently humans began allowing wolves back into Yellowstone. Not very many, certainly not enough to cull the immense Elk herds which were destroying the Aspen, but enough to introduce what one biologist calls, “the ecology of fear.” It turns out that Elk can exercise a form of self-restraint: They won’t go deep into Aspen groves if they are afraid of wolves. Deep in an Aspen grove, as you can see, elk lack a wide field of view from which they can see approaching wolves. So they eat Aspen bark only on the edges of groves and they eat it quickly. They don’t take time to completely strip even the trees on the edge of the grove. The trees are returning to health and the songs of birds can again be heard in Aspen groves."

https://fatfinch.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/the-ecology-of-fear/

I have never before either read or heard the words "pando clone," and it is a fascinating concept...

...especially with the single root system (particularly now, when communication between plant systems is being deciphered by scientists, because: with one root system, communication between the disparate parts of that system would be much easier for scientists to track than would be communication between different, but near to each other, plant systems).

Thank you for this, Amyjo!!

Doesn't look like this topic is getting much traction on this forum Amyjo.

It's in good company ! ;)

I found it interesting also (thanks Tevai.) Being from Idaho with Utah roots, it's someplace I hope to visit someday on a return trip.

Hadn't realized Aspen groves are part of the same root system. How cool is that?

And that they're endangered without the help of park rangers and farmers to protect them from deer and antelope.

That the "oldest, largest living organism" resides in central Utah? Well who would've thunk?!

:)

Amyjo, interesting post. Aspen trees are a great indicator species for healthy ecosystems. When you are driving through the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, you can see three large strands of Aspen trees with chain link fences around them. The Park is trying to keep out elk and bison and promote new growth within the root system. Yellowstone's Aspen tree root systems are dying just like Pando.

The world’s largest living organism is a honey mushroom in Oregon that covers 2200 acres and extends 3 feet into the ground.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/science/oregons-monster-mushroom-is-worlds-biggest-living-thing-5527898.html%3famp