There's a few questions on this site based around the fastest growing plant of a specific type (vegetable, tree etc.) but can anyone give me a list of the fastest growing plants by mass. To be clear I mean the plant that (once mature if appropriate) increases in mass by the greatest percentage.
Bonus points for anyone providing a list of different plants!
I think duckweed may take the prize for daily increase (of course, it's aquatic, and individually tiny - but it grows like mad.) Then again, possibly algae of some sort do better.
Kelp or bamboo win in the "linear growth per day" sort of sweepstakes. With bamboo, it very much depends on the day, though.
Giant sequoia presumably win the "seed to plant mass" unless that 4 mile mushroom from a presumably much lighter spore gets to compete; and since it purports to be the largest living organism, I guess if it plays, it wins.
Some of the large tropical bamboos will put out new growth at a rate of 3' a day (about 1" every 40 minutes),1 which when it is a stalk diameter of over 8-10" is really rather impressive (eventually reaching over 100' in height). They can do this because of their huge, aggressive rhizome system. The new stalks come up like an asparagus stalk, then stretch and open up once they are the mature height, doing almost no growing after that point.
Giant sequoias do grow over 4' a year when young (not as fast as others, but still noticeable). I'm mentioning because the mature ones are going to be the plants that put on the most average yearly mass (as per your question).
Other than that, the only thing that, you have kudzu vines (up to 1' a day - but much more slender), Hybrid poplar (up to 10' a year), and if you count algae, it's blooms put on enormous quantities of mass in less than a day.
I don't know if it's quite what you mean. Rhubarb when in forcing sheds you can hear growing (it crackles) it's so quick.
Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash) is one of the fastest biomass accumulators. With the ability to grow up to 6 feet in height each year, they accumulate almost 10 tons of added weight per year
Eichhornia crassipes, Water hyacinth is one of the fastest growing plants known. It is highly invasive, and will literally destroy lakes. If you have a cold winter, it is good at sucking excess nitrogen out of your Koi ponds.
