FAQt – Fast Questions and Answers

What’s the world’s largest plant?

—

in

Photo: Rachel Austin / The University of Western Australia

Jump to Question –

What’s the world’s largest plant?

Poseidon’s ribbon weed, or Posidonia australis, found in Shark Bay, off the western end of Australia, is the world’s largest plant. The seagrass — not to be confused with seaweed and algae — spreads at least 180 km (77 square miles), about the size of Cincinnati. A new study published on June 1, 2022, in Proceedings of the Royal Society, shows that Shark Bay’s Poseidon’s ribbon weed colony is one giant organism that has been cloning for about 4,500 years, the largest known example of a clone in any environment on Earth.

Is it the largest organism on Earth?

Utah’s Pando, a clonal colony of 40,000 aspen trees connected by their roots, is the former “heaviest known organism.” covering an area of about 500 square meters (0.16 square miles) and weighing 6,000 tonnes. But the Humongous Fungus is probably even more enormous, weaving a web of mycelial tendrils (the root network of mushrooms) covering 3.7 square miles (9.6 square km) of Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. Scientists calculate it could weigh at least 7,500 tons and maybe up to 35,000 tons, making it the world’s most massive living organism.

Extra questions & answers

  1. What’s Jonah’s icefish?
  2. Does the western false asphodel eat insects?
  3. Who’s Australia’s Head of State?
  4. Which of these can be found next to Iran’s southern port city of Bushehr?