Researchers have calculated that the plant spread from a single seed over at least 4,500 years. The sprawling mass was so far considered to be made of individual plants
The seagrass is believed to be 4,500 years old. Rachel Austin/UWA
Scientists have discovered the largest plant on Earth, which is roughly three times the size of Manhattan, off the coast of Australia.
The marine flowering plant, a type of seagrass, stretches for about 180 kilometres, researchers from the University of Western Australia said.
What is the world’s largest plant?
Living in the shallow waters off the coast of Western Australia, the marine flowering plant known as Posidonia australis, has been identified as the largest plant on Earth.
The sprawling seagrass stretches for more than 180 kilometers in Shark Bay, a wilderness area protected as a World Heritage site, said Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia, according to a report by CNN.
The scientists used genetic testing to identify the sprawling mass to be a single plant.
It is believed that the plant spread from a single seed over at least 4,500 years.
According to The BBC, the team of marine scientists stumbled upon the discovery by accident at Shark Bay, about 800 kilometres north of Perth.
The initial aim of the expedition was to understand the genetic diversity of the species the seagrass, which is also known as ribbon weed, commonly found along parts of Australia’s coast.
The BBC report said that the researchers collected shoots from across the bay and examined 18,000 genetic markers to create a “fingerprint” from each sample.
They had aimed to discover how many plants made up the meadow.
“The answer blew us away – there was just one!” said Jane Edgeloe, the study’s lead author.
“That’s it, just one plant has expanded over 180km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth.”
The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
How did it grow so large?
As per CNN, the plant is so large because it clones itself, creating genetically identical offshoots. This process is a way of reproducing that is rare in the animal kingdom although it happens in certain environmental conditions and occurs more often among some plants, fungi and bacteria.
“The plant has been able to continue growing through vegetative growth — extending its rhizomes (rootstalks) outwards — the way a buffalo grass would in your back garden, extending runners outwards. The only difference is that the seagrass rhizomes are under a sandy seafloor so you don’t see them, just the shoots within the water column,” Sinclair said, as reported by CNN.
As it depends on horizontal rhizome expansion, its growth can be seen similar to that of lawn at a rate of up to 35cm in a year. This is how researchers estimated it has taken 4,500 years to sprawl to its current size.
It is, however, not the first species of seagrass to be so ancient and have grown to such monumental lengths.
A Posidonia oceanica plant discovered in the western Mediterranean that spans up to 15 kilometres may be more than 100,000 years old.
With inputs from agencies
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