|
Pando (Latin for "I spread"), also known as The Trembling Giant, is a clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen (''Populus tremuloides'') determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000,000 kg (6,600 short tons), making it the heaviest known organism.〔Genetic Variation and the Natural History of Quaking Aspen, Jeffry B. Mitton; Michael C. Grant, ''BioScience'', Vol. 46, No. 1. (Jan., 1996), pp. 25-31. (JSTOR )〕 The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms.〔(Quaking Aspen ) by the Bryce Canyon National Park Service〕〔Sibley, David Allen. ''The Sibley Guide to Trees. ''New York: Knopf, 2009. (p. ''xv'').〕 Pando is located 1 mile southwest of Fish Lake on Utah's Route 25,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pando )〕 in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest, at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in South-Central Utah, at (N 38.525 W 111.75 ). ==History== Pando is thought to have grown for much of its lifetime under ideal circumstances: frequent forest fires have prevented its main competitor, conifers, from colonizing the area, and a climate shift from wet and humid to semi-arid has obstructed seedling establishment and the accompanying rivalry from younger aspens. During intense fires, the organism survived underground, with its root system sending up new stems in the aftermath of each wildfire. If its postulated age is correct, the climate into which Pando was born was markedly different from that of today, and it may have been as many as 10,000 years since Pando's last successful flowering. According to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report: The clone now known as Pando was discovered in 1968 by researcher Burton V. Barnes, who continued to study it through the 1970s. Barnes had described Pando as a single organism based on its morphological characteristics alone; molecular techniques and methods developed since that time have largely substantiated those conclusions. Building on Barnes's earlier work, Michael Grant of the University of Colorado at Boulder re-examined the clone, named it "Pando", and claimed it to be the world's most massive organism in 1992. In 2006 the United States Postal Service published a stamp in commemoration of the aspen, calling it one of the forty "Wonders of America."〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/wash06downloads.htm )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pando (tree)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|