FunFact #3 - What is the heaviest organism in the world?

Okay, we can think of some really bad jokes for this question. But seriously, what is the heaviest organism in the world, and is it also the biggest?

In FunFact #1, I wrote about the biggest organism in the world, a honey fungus. But that is not the heaviest organism in the world. The heaviest organism in the world weighs a whopping 6,000 tons (6,000,000 kg), and is called Pando. No, not this one:

But this one:

All those yellow trees? They are all a single organism, found in Richfield, Utah. In most cases, trees reproduce through flowering and sexual reproduction. However, quaking aspens usually reproduce asexually, by sprouting new trees from the expansive lateral root of the parent.

The sprouting of new trees from the expansive lateral root of the parent.

That means that all the trees are connected through the same root network, and have the exact same DNA, making it one single organism.
The forest behaves somewhat unusual because of this, but also very spectacular. In autumn all the trees lose their leaves at the same time, and in spring they all gain leaves at the same time. Also, when one of the trees gets sick, nutriënts and water of the other trees will be transported to the sick tree through their shared root system.

In total, Pando consists of 47,000 trees, and the optimistic researchers estimated Pando to be over one million years old. Although these estimates are very doubtfull, it is probably one of the oldest organism's in the world as well.

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Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeiYXex_fwgYDonaTcSIk6w
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pando-the-trembling-giant

Image sources:
http://imgur.com/gallery/1kZAZ
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-endangered-n643336

Check out the previous FunFact's:
#1: https://steemit.com/nature/@awesomebiology/the-biggest-organism-in-the-world-is
#2: https://steemit.com/science/@awesomebiology/funfact-2-folding-a-piece-of-paper-untill-you-reach-the-moon