So who and what is Pando? Pando is a fa mous stand of trees in Fishlake National Forest, Utah, USA. What is special about them is that they are all the same species, Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides), all genetically identical, and allinterconnected via an underground root system.
Pando is Latin for “spread out”, and this particular stand of aspens is spread over more than 40,000hectares with some 40,000 trunks. Because of the genetic identity and interconnectedness, Pando may be regarded as a single organism, the most massive organism in the world.
Pando caught myattention because of a recent article saying that it has stopped growing due to grazing a human activity. Though this is a clear warning sign, the mere factthat Pando has thrived for tens of millenia indicates a successful survival strategy, leading me to look for research about Aspen and its phytochemicals.
Aspen is classified taxonomically in the Malpighiales order - Salicaceae family. Trees in this family include poplars and willow, whose leaves and bark have been used traditionally in several parts of the world for treating joint pain, swelling and other ailments. An article by St. Pierre et al (2018) identifies 92distinct molecules in quaking aspen extracts, including flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolic acids and alkaloids. Twenty-two of them are molecules with known antimicrobial activity, maybe important in keeping a healthy microbiome around the extensive root system!
While out own work at Green Mountain Biotech has not (yet) included plants from the Malpighales order, we do work with extracts of other plants that contain many of the samephytochemicals. Many of these molecules have known pharmacological effects that include anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, anti-cancer and antiviral activitiesetc., and our own interest is in identifying activities that contribute to skin health.
Getting back to the trees, we humans can admire their amazing survival strategies, learn from the mand benefit from their phytochemical bounty. But we must also respect them and take heed when warning signs appear.
Further reading
"Pando (tree)," Wikipedia (2022), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pando_(tree)&oldid=1113743207
Jasna Hodžić, “Pando, the world’s largestorganism, has stopped growing”, LIFE — September 30,2022. https://bigthink.com/life/pando-largest-organism-stopped-growing/
St-Pierre, Annabelle et al. (2018)“Phytochemical Screening of Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) Extractsby UPLC-QTOF-MS and Evaluation of their Antimicrobial Activity.” Molecules vol. 23,7 1739. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23071739
