Earth & nature / DAY 06 OF 40
A forest with a shared identity.
Pando's many aspen trunks are connected as a clonal organism.
Here's the strange part.
Pando looks like a forest having a very coordinated meeting. Its tens of thousands of aspen trunks belong to a large clone connected through a root system in Utah. Individual stems can have different lifespans from the larger organism. The surprising part is shared identity, not a simple claim that one conventional tree has been standing unchanged for an exact number of years. (National Forest Foundation)
The source's exact age and world-record claims are not established here. A clonal forest is more nuanced than one enormous conventional tree.
REALITY CHECK · TRUE OR FALSE?
One forest. Several birthday questions.
The age of an individual Pando trunk must equal the age of the whole clone.
Go straight to the receipts.
Curious about the methods, dates or details? Open the original source and keep the caveat in view.
ORIGINAL SOURCENational Forest FoundationOpen publication ↗NEXT IN THE 40-DAY TRAIL / DAY 07Earth used to clock out early. ↗