When it comes to
genome size, a rare Japanese flower, called
Paris japonica, is the current heavyweight champ, with
50 times more DNA than humans. It is a slow growing perennial that sports a rare, showy white star-like flower above a single whorl of about eight stem leaves. The exceptionally large genome of
P. japonica is due to the fact that it's an
octoploid, meaning it has four sets of chromosomes - on the contrary, humans are diploid (two sets). Its 40
chromosomes consist of 150 billion base pairs of DNA per cell, therefore making its genome the largest known genome of any living organism. In fact, the DNA from a single cell could theoretically stretch out to be longer than 300 feet (91 m). ...
