Pando: the 6,000-ton aspen clone—the heaviest living organism on Earth
Pando is a 106-acre stand of about 47,000 quaking aspen trunks that are all genetically identical, sharing a single underground root system estimated at 6,000 tons; it’s considered the heaviest living organism and likely ages back to the end of the last Ice Age (at least 14,000 years, with some estimates up to 80,000). The trunks continually regenerate from the root network, making Pando a clone rather than a typical forest, but it faces threats from deer browsing and reduced regeneration outside protected areas.