PubMed · 2026-06-07
Sassafras trees survive for decades in shady eastern forests by cloning themselves underground, sending up new shoots from roots rather than relying on seeds. A 20-year study found that most of the stems in a Tennessee forest patch belonged to just 31 genetic individuals, some of which had spread across areas larger than a typical city lot.
Within a single 1-hectare plot, researchers identified only 31 distinct genetic individuals (genets), yet some clones exceeded 100 stems and spread across more than 8,000 m².
Medium-sized stems were spatially and temporally unstable, forming a demographic bottleneck — while short and tall stems persisted, mid-sized plants were the most vulnerable stage.
Clonal growth via root suckering decouples stem death from genetic-individual death, allowing genets to persist across heterogeneous, low-resource forest environments for decades.
