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Scientists have discovered the world's “biggest seagrass”, spreading over 200 square kilometres (77sq miles) of underwater seafloor in Shark Bay, off the westernmost tip of Australia.
Genetic testing shows the network of meadows is actually one single plant that has been continually cloning itself for almost 4,500 years.
The species – a “Posidonia australis”, also known as fibre-ball weed or ribbon weed – is commonly found along the southern coastlines of Australia, The Guardian reports.
Left to its own devices and relatively undisturbed by human hands, the seed has grown to what is now believed to be the biggest plant anywhere on Earth.
However, when scientists started looking for genetic differences in ribbon weed across the bay, they came across a puzzle. Samples taken from sites that were 180km apart suggested there were not multiple specimens of Posidonia australis, but one single plant.
University of Western Australia (UWA), Student Researcher, Jane Edgeloe said that about 18,000 genetic markers were examined as they looked for variations in the species that might help them select specimens for use in restoration projects.
“But what they found instead was that the same plant had spread using rhizomes in the same way that a lawn can spread from its edges by sending out runners.”
“The existing 200sq km of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonising seedling,” she said.
The one plant now spreads out like a meadow, providing habitat for a huge array of marine species including turtles, dolphins, dugongs, crabs and fish.
