Autumn Aspen from the Wisconsin Northwoods
Here's an image of an aspen from my October trip to the northwoods of Wisconsin. I say “an aspen” as this is almost certainly a single organism, even though we usually refer to them as separate trees.
Aspens reproduce mostly by sending out shoots from the roots – what we perceive as individual trees are stems from the root system. An aspen grove is a single organism known as a clone, and while individual stems live around 200 years, the clone itself can live for thousands. The Pando aspen clonal colony in Utah is estimated to weigh over 6600 tons, making it the heaviest known living organism. Some estimate its age at 80,000 years, which would place it among the oldest known living organisms.
As always, please let me know what you think!
– Jack
