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Watch: Researchers discover world’s largest plant in Australia

June 2, 2022
Bharat Times

The plant’s surface area is believed to be slightly larger than the city of Glasgow.

Scientists have recently discovered the world’s largest underwater plant in Western Australia. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the plant, discovered in Shark Bay, is believed to span 200 square kilometers (77 sq mi). This surface area is slightly larger than the city of Glasgow, three times the size of Manhattan Island, or about 20,000 rugby fields, independent informed of.

Researchers said the discovery was made by accident after stumbling across the plant while doing genetic testing. They initially believed the plant to be a giant sea meadow, but later found it to be a single seed-spreading plant. Experts believe that this plant is about 4,500 years old and 180 km long.

According to the study, the researchers said that the plant is a single clone of “Poseidonia australis” sea grass and is the largest known example of clone in any environment on Earth. It is believed to have formed in shallow water after the Shark Bay area submerged less than 8,500 years ago.

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talking to ABC Australia“When we took a closer look at the data, we were quite surprised and it appeared that everything was related to a single plant,” said Elizabeth Sinclair, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia and a co-author of the study.

Furthermore, the researchers said that in addition to the plant’s unusual shape, its ability to sustain itself for thousands of years suggests that it has evolved resilience to recover from an extreme climate event through vegetative growth. Characteristics of reproductive activity in the plant are also “unmistakable” because it does not produce as many flowers or seeds, he said.

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Experts said the plant’s relative abundance suggests that it has developed a resilience to variable and often extreme conditions that enable it to sustain itself now and in the future.