Australian researchers have located what is believed to be the largest plant on Earth—and they estimate it’s at least 4,500 years old.
The ancient and incredibly resilient seagrass stretching across 180km was located by researchers from The University of Western Australia and Flinders University.
The discovery of the single plant or “clone” of the seagrass Posidonia australis in the shallow, sun-drenched waters of the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay in WA is detailed in a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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UWA student researcher Jane Edgeloe, lead author of the study, says the team sampled seagrass shoots from across Shark Bay’s variable environments and generated a “fingerprint” using 18,000 genetic markers.
“The answer blew us away—there was just one.” Ms. Edgeloe said. “That’s it, just one plant has expanded over 180km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth.
“The existing 200 km2 of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonizing seedling.”