Q & A
About
What is Pando?
Pando is the world’s largest tree of any kind.
What makes Pando the largest tree of any kind?
- Pando is the largest Tree by weight: 13.2 Million Pounds . That makes it 3 times larger by weight than the largest Sequoia Tree, The General Sherman (Sequoia giganticum).
- Pando is the largest Tree by land mass. Pando spans 106 acres
- Pando is the largest Tree by species. Pando is the largest Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) clone verified by genetic testing
No other tree is larger than Pando in any one of the ways described above. Pando is the largest tree in all three ways. The Pando Tree is a tree that stands in a class of its own.
How did we discover Pando?
Even though people have used the Pando’s homeland for agriculture, commerce, fishing and hunting for some 10,000 years, Pando wasn’t recognized until 1976 when Aspen Ecologists Burton Barnes and Jerry Kemperman noticed the outline of the tree as they flew over the Fish Lake Basin.
Source: Research paper describing a large aspen clone (later named Pando) in Fishlake Basin
Where is the Pando Tree?
Pando lives along a western basin wall of FishLake, Utah in the Fishlake National Forest in south central Utah.
Size
What does the word "Pando" mean and why would someone name a tree that?
The word “Pando“, is Latin for “I spread” or “The One Who Spreads”. The aspen tree was given the nickname “Pando” by scientist Michael Grant in a 1992 article in Discover Magazine because of how it “spreads out” across 106 acres. Although Grant did not discover the tree, most found the name creative and appropriate, so the name stuck.
Source: Article where the giant tree was named
How big is Pando?
Pando spans 106-acres and weighs over 13.2 million Pounds.
I thought the General Sherman Tree, a Sequoia, was the largest tree?
No. Redwoods are the tallest growing trees and are the heaviest single-stem trees. Pando weighs more than the largest Redwood and, is 100 times larger by landmass.
How do we know Pando is the worlds largest tree?
Genetic Testing.
Between 2006 and 2008, researchers from the US Forest Service collaborated with independent researchers to gather plant tissue for genetic testing. They announced their findings in 2008 proving Pando was a single organism operating on a vast scale.
Source:* Read the paper that proved Pando’s size.
Longevity
How old is Pando?
Based on geologic records and charcoal studies, Pando has been active for at least 9,000 years and maybe as many as 12,000 years, but before that, the area was likely too cold for it to have established itself.
But I heard Pando is 80,000 year old...?
You may have heard that Pando is up to 80,000 years old. It probably isn’t. That number came from a Bryce Canyon National Park web page back in the 1990s, and it was never based on any real test of Pando’s age. The park removed the claim in 2023.
So how old is it? The honest answer is that we don’t know exactly yet — but here’s what the science actually tells us.
At least 9,000 years. Researchers dug into the soil beneath Pando and found bits of ancient charcoal — leftovers from old fires. By radiocarbon-dating that charcoal, they showed that aspen trees have grown on this exact spot continuously for at least 9,000 years (Novák and colleagues, 2022). That doesn’t prove it’s been the same clone the whole time, but it shows this has been aspen ground for a very long time — which fits with Pando being extremely old.
Possibly 12,000 to 37,000 years. A newer study took a different approach: it looked at tiny genetic changes that build up in a living thing over time, like counting tree rings but in the DNA. That work (Pineau and colleagues) estimates Pando is somewhere between 12,000 and 37,000 years old. It’s a promising first attempt, but it hasn’t yet passed formal scientific review.
The bottom line: Pando is many thousands of years old — almost certainly older than any single-trunk tree on Earth, including the Methuselah Tree and some other clonal trees. Exactly how old—is still an open question. Friends of Pando is supporting work and helping gather material for a new age study using different methods. We hope to have results in later 2026 or 2027.
I heard Pando is dying, is this true?
No. There are three ways to know Pando is dying for sure and no one has provided and replicable, peer review study which can answer that question. Visit our Science Communication Center to learn more.
Biology
What species of tree is the Pando?
Pando is an aspen tree, species Populus tremuloides Michx.
Does Pando have one trunk, like a tree in my yard?
No. Pando is made up of over 40,000 ramets, (aka branches or trunks) that at first glance, look like individual tree trunks, but are in fact, genetically identical parts of a single tree connected by a massive root system.
I've often heard Pando is a "clone" tree? What does that mean?
When we say Pando is a “clone” tree, it simply means that Pando reproduces itself by self-replicating, also known as vegetative reproduction. Each new part is genetically identical to the next.
Because Pando is a clone, does that mean it is not a single tree?
No. Generally speaking, Pando behaves like a single tree working to coordinate energy production, defense and regeneration as one organism.
Since Pando is a clone, does that mean it is not the "World's Largest Tree"?
No. Many trees reproduce by cloning in North America including Beech, Apple, Coastal Redwood, Alder and Oak.
Is it better to think about and treat Pando as a Single Tree or, as a Clone?
Actually Both. In many ways, work to understand and protect the Pando Tree, requires us to think of Pando as a single tree. Conversely, scientists may also focus on the fact that the Pando Tree is a clone or colony because it helps shape research questions that can’t be studied elsewhere.
