3 ms·

Is this the only instance of this species? Why doesn't it have other instances elsewhere that behave the same way?

• jff 11y ago
  As the article explains, it grew to this size under very favorable circumstances: forest fires keep burning down competing conifers, and a shift in climate some 10,000 years ago made it so separate aspens couldn't really flourish. Also in the article it mentions other clonal groups in Utah and elsewhere.
• DavidAdams 11y ago
  Interconnected stands of Aspen are actually common in areas where Aspen trees grow. Pando is just a particularly old and huge one. In the autumn, you can sometimes tell where two separate stands share a mountainside, because the clones tend to turn yellow all at once, and you can see that one side of the mountain is still somewhat green while the other has turned yellow. I lived in an Aspen forest in Park City that was like that.