180 kilometers long: Researchers accidentally discover the largest plant in the world
It has a gigantic extent of more than 180 kilometers and is estimated to be at least 4500 years old: Australian researchers have discovered what they say is the largest known plant in the world. It is a particularly hardy seaweed.
The researchers from the University of Western Australia and Flinders University made their spectacular discovery public in an official statement in early June. Accordingly, the largest plant in the world, a seaweed with the Latin name Posidonia australis, grows in Shark Bay, a bay on the west coast of Australia in the state of Western Australia.
The evolutionary biologist Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair is one of the lead authors of the study, which is published in the scholarly journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Sinclair explained that they actually wanted to understand how genetically diverse the seagrass beds of Shark Bay are. “We’re often asked how many different plants grow in the seagrass beds, and this time we used genetic tools to answer the question,” Sinclair said.
“The answer blew us away”
According to their descriptions, the research team took seaweed sprouts from the various environments of Shark Bay. A kind of “fingerprint” was then created with the help of 18,000 genetic markers. “We were blown away by the answer — it was just one!” says Jane Edgeloe, another lead author of the study, according to the press release. And further: “A single plant has spread over 180 kilometers in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant in the world.”
According to the researchers, the area of \u200b\u200bthe plant is about 200 square kilometers. They suspect the plant evolved from “a single, colonizing seedling.” According to Sinclair, this seagrass plant differs from other large seagrass clones not only because of its enormous size. In addition, it has twice as many chromosomes as its oceanic relatives. In technical terms, this phenomenon is called polyploidy. “Polyploid plants often live in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if not disturbed. And that’s exactly what this giant seagrass did,” explains Sinclair.
Researchers are now planning a series of further surveys at Shark Bay to learn more about the species, nature and growth of the world’s largest plant. The bay has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1991 and is so named because almost 30 different species of sharks are native there.
