This is the world’s largest plant and you won’t believe how massive it is

ms n.com

The world we live in just amazes me. Nature cloning itself. Ok, a lot of bad jokes come to mind but damn, it's in freaking nature? I'm most likely sure that other species clone, or somewhat near to that, but for the life of me can't come up with one. It's late, I've had a long day and just came across this so forgive me my ignorance as my mind is blank.

There's the argument about cloning being ethical but if it's there in nature, how unethical is it to pursue these trains of thought or am I being way too simple here?

Scientists say they’ve found the world’s largest plant. The discovery was made off the coast of Western Australia and the plant in question is a mass of sprawling seagrass. Scientifically known as Posidonia Australis, the seagrass expands more than 112 miles into a wilderness area known as Shark Bay.

The seagrass has grown so large by utilizing a cloning system. Essentially, it created genetically identical offshoots of itself. These offshoots then grow and add to the mass. Seagrass is typically so dense, that scientists say they are often asked how many different plants live within a meadow.

This time, the team used genetic tools to investigate, and it discovered the world’s largest plant in the process.

The researchers published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. To find these answers, the researchers took samples from all across the meadow in 2012 and 2019. Alongside the samples, they also measured the environmental conditions. This included information about the salinity of the water, the temperature, and the depth.

They discovered that every sample they had taken returned the same genetic markers. As such, the seagrass appears to be one massive organism, making it the world’s largest plant.

Cool, that is good news I think.. seagrass improve water clarity and quality, but also reduces erosion and buffers coastlines against storms. The negative part would be it taking up all the seafloor property, not leaving space for other species of greenery.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I don't think cloning in itself is a bad thing. I just don't like genetic engineering.

Playing God is a dangerous endeavour.

Link fixed :

Wo rlds Largest Plant

Interesting

a reply to: Gothmog

Good call.

If it grows to big I am pretty sure we can just eat it

originally posted by: Spacespider
If it grows to big I am pretty sure we can just eat it

Hopefully.

It beats Worm Burgers. 🍔

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

There's the argument about cloning being ethical but if it's there in nature, how unethical is it to pursue these trains of thought or am I being way too simple here?

Not to detail but there is plenty of things in nature that would be deemed unethical in certain societies. Just because nature does it, isn't a good standard to go by.

Makes you wonder if some of the stories about Devil's tower and some of the other "big structures" around the world are trye.
Were they actually old trees that were cut down and have been petrified?

originally posted by: oddscreenname
a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

There's the argument about cloning being ethical but if it's there in nature, how unethical is it to pursue these trains of thought or am I being way too simple here?

Not to detail but there is plenty of things in nature that would be deemed unethical in certain societies. Just because nature does it, isn't a good standard to go by.

Kind of along the same lines of something being "all natural" doesn't make it safe.

Theyre using technical definitions to make claims. The entire carpet might be cloned but thats no different than saying a crowd of 1000 human clones is a single organism. Each shoot of grass is an individual life.

Didn't know about this plant, but I do know that poplar trees send out rhizomes and produce another tree about fifty to eighty feet north of the tree. I learned about this and went and checked out the poplar trees on my land, it appears that this might be the case here. I guess the network can get up to twenty miles long in places, but most times the poplar trees do not live long enough to see the relationship, the article stated that they usually form one rhizome tree a year, and stay connected for many years. I was going to use my tick tester to see if the poplars in rows were connected, it sends a signal which you can pick up in a tree far away. Ferns do this too, so do a few other types of trees, but we don't have the other type of trees that do rhizomes around here.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Didn't know about this plant, but I do know that poplar trees send out rhizomes and produce another tree about fifty to eighty feet north of the tree. I learned about this and went and checked out the poplar trees on my land, it appears that this might be the case here. I guess the network can get up to twenty miles long in places, but most times the poplar trees do not live long enough to see the relationship, the article stated that they usually form one rhizome tree a year, and stay connected for many years. I was going to use my tick tester to see if the poplars in rows were connected, it sends a signal which you can pick up in a tree far away. Ferns do this too, so do a few other types of trees, but we don't have the other type of trees that do rhizomes around here.

Many trees are categorized this way. They might be interdependent and some of their roots connected but I dont see them as a single life form.

originally posted by: SeriouslyDeep

originally posted by: rickymouse
Didn't know about this plant, but I do know that poplar trees send out rhizomes and produce another tree about fifty to eighty feet north of the tree. I learned about this and went and checked out the poplar trees on my land, it appears that this might be the case here. I guess the network can get up to twenty miles long in places, but most times the poplar trees do not live long enough to see the relationship, the article stated that they usually form one rhizome tree a year, and stay connected for many years. I was going to use my tick tester to see if the poplars in rows were connected, it sends a signal which you can pick up in a tree far away. Ferns do this too, so do a few other types of trees, but we don't have the other type of trees that do rhizomes around here.

Many trees are categorized this way. They might be interdependent and some of their roots connected but I dont see them as a single life form.

I think that the Tamarack has that property too, but they were logged off here pretty well back years ago. I had one small tamarack here that I kept eyeing up for a Christmas tree, but when I would go to cut it in December, it always looked dead. It was a perfect looking tree when it had it's needles. It tricked me about three years, in the summer I would see it and make a note, then go to get it in the winter....grrr. It finally died though, a big tree fell on it and it snapped off. Perfect height, about eight feet, and nice and round and bushy. It took me four years to figure out it was a Tamarack.

I have four real nice Christmas trees on my land now, but we no longer put up a tree anymore, no kids around anymore. We have this little two foot high fake tree to put up, it is already decorated and you just plug it in and sit it on a table.

They will have to scrub this from the internet soon!
Like they have done to the Old trees.
Now trees are only 5100 years old max?
that is unless you look hard....

so it beat out the aspen?

pandopopulus.com...#:~:text=Pando%20is%2C%20in%20fact%2C%20the,connected%20through%20one%20root%20system.

pandopopulus.com...#:~:text=Pando%20is%2C%20in%20fact%2C%20the,connected%20through%20one%20root%20system.

a reply to: Gothmog

Thanks, I missed that one.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I don't think cloning in itself is a bad thing. I just don't like genetic engineering.

Playing God is a dangerous endeavour.

Cloning, int this case, is nothing like what people think of cloning. If you take a clump of grass and pull off a smaller clump and grow it by itself, it is a genetic clone. Any time you divide a plant, it is considered cloning. In this case, the plant just naturally tillers off new shoots that can exist as independent plants. Think strawberries for a more obvious instance of cloning.

It is a botanical term and many many plants naturally reproduce this way. It shouldn't be confused with 'animal' cloning.

i guess it is.

Altogether, the ancient organism stretches almost 200 square kilometers. That’s 77 square miles, or 49,000 acres. This makes it much larger than the Pando Forest we mentioned earlier, which is under 110 acres. Unlike the Pando Forest, which is being eaten alive, the seagrass at Shark Bay appears to be thriving.

The seagrass.
That is one of the sea oceans coolest and largest plant.

I hope they arent suggesting to use that as human food.