Australian scientists have found the world’s largest plant.

The plant is essentially a seagrass meadow off the coast of Western Australia that covers 200 km. It is a plant because the complete expanse grew from a single seed.

The breakthrough wowed the researchers because the plant spread by cloning itself.

Posidonia australis, the plant, is a type of ribbon weed seagrass.

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It all started when scientists from the University of Western Australia and Flinders University decided to research the genetic diversity of seagrass meadows in the Shark Bay region.

They were inquisitive about how the area’s underwater seagrass meadows grew.

To start understanding more, the researcher gathered shoot samples from all over the region and then analysed 18,000 genetic markers to create plant profiles.

When they tested the DNA of the plants, they discovered that all of the samples were from the same organism.

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The head author of the study, Jane Edgelie stated –

“That’s it, just one plant has expanded over 180 km (112 miles) in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth, the existing 200 km2 of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonizing seedling.“

The senior author of the study, Dr Elizabeth Sinclair stated –

“It appears to be resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which together would typically be highly stressful for most plants,” according to Times Now.

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The meadow vastly outstrips the previous world record holder for the largest plant, an aspen tree named Pando in the US state of Utah.

Pando, like the Australian meadow, cloned itself into a colony linked by a single root system.