Pando: Earth's Heaviest Living Thing Is a 106-Acre Aspen Clone
Pando is a single clone of quaking aspens in Utah: about 47,000 trunks over 106 acres connected by one shared root system, weighing around 6,000 tonnes, making it possibly the heaviest living thing on Earth, with an age estimate of 16,000–80,000 years based on somatic mutations; the clonal organism keeps sprouting new stems as old ones die, but deer browsing and other factors threaten regeneration, prompting management efforts and raising questions about somatic mutation and longevity in long-lived organisms.
