A bed of seagrass off the coast of Australia has spent roughly 4,500 years expanding across the ocean floor and is the largest plant discovered so far, a study published yesterday (June 1) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B finds. The seagrass, which appears to be a hybrid of Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis) and an unknown species, has apparently thrived using clonal growth instead of sexual reproduction, Science reports.
The researchers who discovered the gargantuan bed of seagrass originally set out to conduct a genetic survey, hoping to find specimens to replant in restoration projects, The Guardian reports. After analyzing nearly 150 samples from 10 seagrass meadows between 2012 and 2019, they didn’t see the genetic variation they expected, according to the study. Instead, they found that the shoots they sampled from nine of the meadows all came from the same plant.
“The existing 200 square kilometers of ...
