A single plant of underwater seagrass that stretches more than 112 miles in the shallows of Shark Bay, Australia–perhaps the most Australian place name ever–has been dubbed the world’s largest plant, CNN reports.
The plant, known as Posidonia australis, grows in a protected World Heritage site and has grown so large it would stretch from Los Angeles to San Diego. Scientists studied genetic maps of the plant from various locations from 2012 through 2019 and discovered it had the same DNA map, meaning that the offshoots were not separate plants, but part of a network of one giant organic structure.
“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,” said Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia.