Pando is a single quaking aspen with roughly 40,000 trunks. One root system, about 106 acres, every stem genetically identical, and by mass it is commonly reckoned the largest living thing on Earth. Its age is a genuine argument rather than a rounded number, running from several hundred years to 80,000 depending on the method used. A flat 1.4 mile trail from the Old Spanish Trailhead by Fish Lake walks straight into it. There is no single trunk to photograph, which is exactly what makes the walk worth taking.
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Pando
Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) · estimated thousands of years (a single precise figure is disputed) · the Old Spanish Trailhead parking area, where the Lakeshore National Recreation Trail runs a spur directly through the Pando clone
Pando is not a tree. It is one quaking aspen: a single organism of roughly 40,000 stems sharing one root system across about 106 acres, commonly reckoned the most massive known living thing on Earth. Every stem is genetically identical, which is why the whole hillside changes colour in the same week each autumn, and why the trunks you walk between are closer to branches than to neighbours. Its age is a live argument rather than a rounded number. The popular figure is 80,000 years, derived from an assumed rate of spread. Other researchers put it anywhere from several hundred to about 14,000, and the disagreement is about method rather than about Pando. Nobody has settled it and we are not going to tidy it here. What is documented is that the clone is failing to replace itself: deer and cattle eat the young stems before they clear browsing height, so an organism of that age currently consists mostly of old wood, and the Forest Service manages it with that in mind. The Old Spanish Trailhead sits on Highway 25 by Fish Lake, free, no permit, and a flat 1.4 mile walk out and back goes straight into the clone. There is no single trunk to stand in front of and no way to see the whole of it at once. That is the thing you have come for.
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