University of WA researchers have discovered the world’s largest plant, about 4,500 years old living right under our noses in WA.

Genetic testing revealed what was believed to be a giant seagrass meadow in the shallow waters of Shark Bay was actually a single massive clone of Posidonia australis seagrass.

UWA School of Biological Sciences research fellow Dr Elizabeth Sinclair, from the university’s Oceans Institute, said the seagrass plant seems to span 180km.

“We used genetic markers, much like fingerprints are used to identify humans, and what we found was all the diversity in this seagrass comes back to one individual, so they all share pretty much identical genes,” she told Gareth Parker on 6PR Breakfast.

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Image: Courtesy UWA