1Aspen tree, USA

When the aspen trees of Colorado and Utah prepare for autumn, their leaves turn a dazzling golden yellow. but seen against the clarity of crisp blue mountain skies, their characteristically fluttering leaves shimmer with impossible intensity.

Aspens have developed a novel way to colonize and out-compete other species after fire has swept through. They don’t mess around making seeds and hoping something will disperse them, but instead rapidly clone themselves from shoots that appear from underground stems and roots. That means that every aspen in a clump (the technical term for a group of trees) is an identical twin, united by one root system. The largest known clump, the Pando Grove of Utah – which covers more than a hundred acres – may well be the largest single living organism in the world.

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