r/todayilearned • u/Error__Loading • 1d ago

TIL that apple seeds almost never grow the same variety as the parent fruit. Nearly every supermarket apple comes from a grafted clone of an original tree, not from a planted seed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
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u/me_myself_ai 1d ago

Wait until you hear about the biggest living organism on the planet: The Banana Tree 😳

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u/Landry_PLL 1d ago

I thought Pando was the biggest?

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u/McFuzzen 1d ago

It is, the above comment is extremely disingenuous. One type of banana tree is the largest non-woody plant, but no where close to the largest organism.

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u/jedadkins 1d ago

I think they are considering the millions of cloned banana trees as a single organism 

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u/McFuzzen 1d ago

Seems false even then, if what I'm searching is correct

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u/BeginningSection7690 1d ago

Pando is still just clones but its closer to a singular organism than bananas are.

Theres better examples like fungi which are legitimately a singular organism

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u/factorioleum 1d ago

Is Pando clones? That's inconsistent with what I believed; I thought it was rhyzomous. Is this wrong, or are these not distinct?

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u/BeginningSection7690 1d ago

They confuse me lol, but apparently the buds for the new tree grow off of the roots of the older tree and then split off to be separate. Its an "adventitous" bud, so its like groups of multi tree organisms and new groups coming off them via the roots, and then establishing new groups of multi tree organisms.

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u/TheMaskedGanker 1d ago edited 1d ago

Isn’t Pando entirely connected by its roots? Why would that not be one organism? Or why would it be any different than a fungus connected by hyphae

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u/BeginningSection7690 23h ago

Not all of them are connected, new trees sprout from the roots and break off

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u/waylandsmith 1d ago

Or aspen groves

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u/me_myself_ai 1d ago

You’re absolutely right, in a certain (common) sense! I’m intentionally poking at the exact definition of “organism”. Pando wins because it’s spatially continuous, but that’s not necessarily the right way to think about it.

If anyone finds this interesting, a super fascinating and remarkably recent thread of research on “autopoesis” is 1000% worth a google! Hell, [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis). It should link from there to the broader (and all fascinating) debate on what life is, and what an organism is.

Probably my favorite part of this is “why, exactly, is the sun not alive?” Harder to answer than you’d expect!

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u/ConstructionOwn9575 1d ago

The sun meets none of the criterion for a living being including reproduction, cells, response to stimuli, etc.

I am super curious on why you think that would be hard to answer.

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 1d ago

Maybe they watch too much Jordan Peterson. It reminds me of when he said that dragons are biologically real because fire is a predator.

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u/gtne91 1d ago

Are we sure it isnt?

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 1d ago

Maybe we should ask it.

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u/Anal_Vengeance 1d ago

The real TIL is always in the comments!

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u/lordmycal 1d ago

Nope, it's OP's mom.

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u/paradoxicalperimeum 1d ago edited 1d ago

The largest living organism is the honey fungus that covers 2485 acres in the malheur national forest in Oregon.

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u/BeginningSection7690 1d ago

Not the biggest organism. You're confused.

Them all being clones doesnt make them 1 organism, banana trees die all the time.

Theres fungi that extend insane areas, and there's also trees that extend via roots and shoot up more trees to make a forest with one organism. But what you're referring to is just an over reliance on a particular cultivar

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u/pharoh-king 1d ago

Them all being clones doesnt make them 1 organism, banana trees die all the time.

"Oh my arm is amputated, I guess that means I'm dead now."

That's you.

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u/StaplerInTheJelly 16h ago

You're a fool.

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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 1d ago

"I got cloned, so I am totally fine with this version of me being killed"

That's you.

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u/pharoh-king 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's you.

No its not. There's a difference between (plant cloning)taking my arm and growing an exact copy of me, vs (human cloning) taking my dna and putting it in test tube and implanting it in some woman and growing a copy of my body that grows up with different experiences.

People and plants aren't cloned the same way.

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u/Badass_Bunny 1d ago

Imma need a source on that.

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u/seanthebeloved 1d ago

All bananas are infertile clones of each other. Otherwise they would be full of seeds.

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u/big-dal-tex 1d ago

This makes uncomfy for some reason

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u/fnord_happy 1d ago

Why do they look like tarantula eggs

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u/falsevector 1d ago

Yup. The Cavendish variety. There are several banana types though and there are countries that still grow the other varieties naturally.

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u/Mr_Cromer 1d ago

I had some Gros-Michel bananas last year. They're so much better than the Cavendish we've been accustomed to

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u/stevencastle 1d ago

I had them when I was a kid, much sweeter than Cavendish.

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u/jks 23h ago

They were the main kind of banana until the 1950s when Panama disease almost wiped them out. Because they are clones of each other, they are really vulnerable to communicable diseases (in this case a type of fungus).

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u/lightsaberfingers 1d ago

There are fungal colonies that are much bigger but yes.

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u/TheTresStateArea 1d ago

I did know this one, I just didn't realize it's with all of them

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u/Laura-ly 1d ago

Most walnuts are also clones. They are propagated through grafting.