47,000 trees · one living thing

ROOT

In Utah there's a forest of about 47,000 aspen trees. It's actually one single living thing, joined underground by one root.

tap a tree · scroll to go underground

Fishlake National Forest, Utah

It looks like a forest.

White trunks, golden leaves, a whole hillside of aspen. Walk through it and you'd swear you were among thousands of separate trees.

Look closer

Every tree is the same.

Scientists tested the trees and found they share the same DNA. Every trunk is a copy of one single plant.

Underground

One root holds them all.

Below the soil, a single root system connects every trunk. The trees are just the parts of it you can see.

The name

Pando means "I spread."

It grows by sending up new shoots from its roots. Each shoot becomes a new trunk, and the grove slowly spreads.

A giant

One of the heaviest living things.

All together, Pando is estimated to weigh around 6,000 tonnes, and it's thought to be thousands of years old.

a forest?

tap the scene

From above

How big is one tree?

Scroll to see Pando from above. Every dot is a trunk, and every trunk is the same living thing.

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One trunk. Then another.

Try it yourself

Light the root.

Tap any tree and watch the light run through the root to every other tree. Tap the soil to send up a new shoot. Scroll and the root keeps growing.

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1root

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Strange and true

Not your usual tree.

Trembling leaves

Aspen leaves sit on flat stems, so they flutter in the slightest breeze. That's why they're called quaking aspen.

Bark that works

Under the white bark is a thin green layer that can make food from sunlight, even in winter.

Back after fire

A fire can burn the trunks, but the root survives underground and sends up new shoots.

Needs protecting

Deer and cattle eat the young shoots before they can grow. Fences now help new trunks come back.

Mini game · 30 seconds

Shoo the deer.

Hungry deer are walking in to eat the young shoots. Tap them before they reach the shoots so the grove can keep growing.

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100%shoots left

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Tap Start, then tap the deer.

One root, every season

The whole grove changes together.

spring

Buds

Waking up

Fresh green leaves open across the hillside.

summer

Shimmer

A sea of green

Thousands of leaves quake and flash in the wind.

autumn

Gold

All at once

Because it's one plant, whole patches turn gold together.

winter

White

Bare and bright

White trunks stand in the snow while the root waits below.

thousands of years

Again

Over and over

Trunks come and go. The root stays.

a seed

You

Join the root

Add your own tree at the end of the page.

From above it looks like thousands of trees. Underground it's one root. Every holder is a trunk. Together we're one living thing. That's $ROOT.

The holder forest · live

Add your tree to the root.

Name your tree and plant it. A new root reaches out to it and light runs through the whole grove. Every new Solana block sends a pulse through the root.

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0Solana blocks since you arrived

not yetyour tree joined

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