On May 31, 2024, researchers announced that the New Caledonian fork fern (Tmesipteris oblanceolate), a leafy, tendrilled plant native to several Pacific islands, has a genome that contains an astonishing 160 billion base pairs, making it the largest genome ever discovered.

DNA is made up of base pairs, two molecules connected by hydrogen bonds. The smallest genome discovered so far belongs to the mammalian parasite Encephalitozoon intestinalis, with a paltry 2.25 million base pairs.