Clonal colony in the context of "Largest organisms"

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⭐ Core Definition: Clonal colony

A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. In plants, an individual in such a population is referred to as a ramet. In fungi, "individuals" typically refers to the visible fruiting bodies or mushrooms that develop from a common mycelium which, although spread over a large area, is otherwise hidden in the soil. Clonal colonies are common in many plant species. Although many plants reproduce sexually through the production of seed, reproduction occurs by underground stolons or rhizomes in some plants. Above ground, these plants most often appear to be distinct individuals, but underground they remain interconnected and are all clones of the same plant. However, it is not always easy to recognize a clonal colony especially if it spreads underground and is also sexually reproducing.

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👉 Clonal colony in the context of Largest organisms

This article lists the largest organisms for various types of life and mostly considers extant species, which found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of an organism's size, such as: mass, volume, area, length, height, or even genome size. Some organisms group together to form a superorganism (such as ants or bees), but such are not classed as single large organisms. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest structure composed of living entities, stretching 2,000 km (1,200 mi) but contains many organisms of many types of species.

When considering singular entities, the largest organisms are clonal colonies which can spread over large areas. Pando, a clonal colony of the quaking aspen tree, is widely considered to be the largest such organism by mass. Even if such colonies are excluded, trees retain their dominance of this listing, with the giant sequoia being the most massive tree. In 2006, a huge clonal colony of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica was discovered south of the island of Ibiza. At 8 kilometres (5 mi) across, and estimated at 100,000 years old, it may be one of the largest and oldest clonal colonies on Earth.

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Clonal colony in the context of List of longest-living organisms

This is a list of the longest-living biological organisms: the individuals or clones of a species with the longest natural maximum life spans. For a given species, such a designation may include:

  1. The oldest known individual(s) that are currently alive, with verified ages.
  2. Verified individual record holders, such as the longest-lived human, Jeanne Calment, or the longest-lived domestic cat, Creme Puff.

The definition of "longest-living" used in this article considers only the observed or estimated length of an individual organism's natural lifespan – that is, the duration of time between its birth or conception (or the earliest emergence of its identity as an individual organism) and its death – and does not consider other conceivable interpretations of "longest-living", such as the length of time between the earliest appearance of a species in the fossil record and the present day (the historical "age" of the species as a whole) or the time between a species' first speciation and its extinction (the phylogenetic "lifespan" of the species). This list includes long-lived organisms that are currently still alive as well as those that have already died.

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Clonal colony in the context of Cordgrass

Spartina is a genus of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Species in this genus are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, north-western and southern Africa, the Americas and the islands of the southern Atlantic Ocean; one or two species also occur on the western coast of North America and in freshwater habitats inland in the Americas. The highest species diversity is on the east coasts of North and South America, particularly Florida. They form large, often dense colonies, particularly on coastal salt marshes, and grow quickly. The species vary in size from 0.3–2 m tall. Many of the species will produce hybrids if they come into contact.

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Clonal colony in the context of Asimina triloba

Asimina triloba, the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a species of small deciduous tree. It has large leaves and produces a large, yellowish-green to brown fruit.

The species is native to eastern North America, in a more temperate range than its tropical relatives. It is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree of hardwood forests, being found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and also hilly upland habitat.

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