The planet is home to an astonishing array of plant life, varying immensely in form, habitat, and scale. Determining the “largest” plant, however, is not always straightforward, as size can be measured in different ways—by height, volume, or even the area covered by a single organism. This leads to several contenders for the title, each remarkable in its own right.
Identifying the World’s Largest Plant
The plant widely considered the largest in the world is Pando, a vast clonal colony of quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides) located in Utah, USA. Recognized for its immense mass and extensive underground root system, it is the heaviest and most widespread organism by area, covering approximately 106 acres (43 hectares) and weighing around 13 million pounds (6,000 metric tons).
What appears to be a forest of individual trees is, in fact, a single interconnected organism, with all 40,000 to 47,000 stems being genetically identical. Each stem sprouts from a shared root system, which can persist for tens of thousands of years, with some estimates suggesting Pando began growing at the end of the last ice age. The name “Pando” itself comes from Latin, meaning “I spread,” aptly describing its growth pattern.
Metrics for Measuring Plant Size
The term “largest” in the plant kingdom can be interpreted through various metrics, each highlighting a different aspect of a plant’s scale.
Another way to define “largest” is by height, referring to the tallest individual tree. This record is held by Hyperion, a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) found in Redwood National Park, California. Hyperion was measured at 116.07 meters (380.8 feet) tall in 2019 and is estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old.
A third metric focuses on the sheer volume of a single trunk or stem. The General Sherman Tree, a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) located in Sequoia National Park, California, holds this distinction. With a trunk volume of approximately 1,487 cubic meters (52,500 cubic feet), it contains more wood than any other single tree on Earth. Standing around 83.8 meters (275 feet) tall and with an estimated age of 2,200 to 2,700 years, the General Sherman Tree is a massive living structure.
Other Impressive Plant Giants
Beyond Pando’s remarkable clonal expanse, other plants achieve immense scale through different growth forms.
Hyperion, the Coast Redwood, stands as the world’s tallest known living tree, reaching an astounding 116.07 meters (380.8 feet) into the sky within California’s Redwood National Park. This species is renowned for its slender, skyward growth, allowing it to dominate the canopy.
Its enormous trunk, measuring 7.7 meters (25 feet) in diameter at its base, contributes to its impressive overall mass.
More recently, a vast seagrass meadow in Shark Bay, Western Australia, has been identified as another contender for the title of largest plant by area. This single organism, Posidonia australis, spans over 180 kilometers (112 miles) and covers approximately 200 square kilometers (49,000 acres). Like Pando, this seagrass expands through a cloning system, creating genetically identical offshoots from a single rootstock, and is estimated to be at least 4,500 years old.