All is not as it appears to be here at Pando, in Utah"s Fishlake National Forest. At first glance, visitors likely see a massive grove of quaking aspen trees, their leaves dancing in the wind. But Pando is not many trees; instead, it"s a single organism. Like many aspen groves, the 40,000 trees in Pando are genetically identical cloned stems that sprouted from the same root system. First discovered in 1968, Pando made waves in the scientific world. It"s become recognized as one of the heaviest known organisms—weighing 6,000 metric tons—and one of the oldest known living organisms. Scientists estimate its root system is upwards of 80,000 years old, having endured the last ice age and countless forest fires. It got to be so old partly because most of the organism is protected underground. So, while an individual stem can die, the organism as a whole survives.
Fall comes to Pando
Today in History
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Oymyakon, Russia
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National Moon Day
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Halloween
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Cloudy with a chance of enlightenment
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Super sandy Sweet 16
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This park is Superkilen
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What s going on in this sky?
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They’re grrrape!
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1, 1, 2, 3: It s Fibonacci Day!
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Go climb a tree
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Reflections of the night sky
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Commemorating the life of a famous railroad conductor
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Mardi Gras flower power
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The Christmas Bird Count begins
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Feel the spray in Monterey
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Prince Christian Sound in southern Greenland
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International Sloth Day
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It s truffle season here in the Dordogne Valley
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World Art Day
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Indigenous Peoples Day
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A century since Tut s tomb was discovered
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When Death Valley blew its top
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Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park
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Guild houses of Grand-Place, Brussels, Belgium
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Women s suffrage at 100
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Humming along
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Presidents Day
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Daylight saving time begins
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Did it see its shadow?
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Dashing through the snow