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Behold Pando, the Trembling Giant!

This golden grove of quaking aspens, named after the Latin word for "spread out," is located in Fishlake National Forest, Utah. Though it looks like a forest, the whole thing is actually a single organism. Every tree — or stem, technically — is genetically identical, and the whole forest is linked by a single root system. Pando's aspens reproduce asexually by sprouting new stems from the root structure.

With over 40,000 stems and a weight of 13 million pounds, the Pando clonal colony is the heaviest known organism in the world. It's also among the oldest living things on the planet — the root system is an estimated 80,000 years old.

Visit Atlas Obscura for more on Pando the Trembling Giant.

More arboreal ardor:

• Italy's Tree Cathedral is a living, growing al fresco church
• The Tree That Owns Itself has a pretty sassy story
• A single tree's 2,800 aerial roots give the appearance of a complete forest

Visit Atlas Obscura for more on Pando the Trembling Giant.