Cecil has commented on the longevity of trees:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_042.html
I know of at least one plant that never dies, unless destroyed by fire or willfully extirpated: yew. And it deserves its name. In Bavaria it is called ewig which means eternal, and whence its English name and many German and English dialectal variants. Yew creeps on the ground and on trees and may cover several acres. No, you don’t creep on the ground. Yew does. 
Not according to any source I can find; the standard German word is Eibe, and was probably originally a Celtic loan-word.
Yew might symbolize immortality, but that’s not its derivation.
Are you talking about the genus Taxus? Because I’ve never seen a Taxus “creep on the ground and on trees”
Expano’s quote seems to let in the possibility of a germanic origin (which it omits to name, possibly because it’s uncertain). And the OP didn’t say German, he said Bavarian.
Not that I care. It’s does seem a bit of a stretch to accept any traditional etymology as more than well, tradition. But traditions are interesting in their own right, and should not be forgetten entirely in favor of the rather abbreviated lore of reference works.
It also seems a little stilted to argue as if there’s only one German language, or one germanic word for yew, or anything of that sort. I recall hearing somewhere that there are many traditional languages within Germany. Also that germanic languages in general, though mostly Indo-European, harbor a large vestige of other, still mysterious origins.
I wasn’t aware that yew trees were particularly long-lived, although I do recall reading that they are particularly slow-growing–back when the discovery of their medicinal properties raised the supply question. I recently read yew is the hardest softwood, and I recall it has an intrinsically “laminated” cross-section which is what makes it particularly well-suited for longbows.
Sounds like an interesting tree. I’ll have to look it up sometime.
I slipped. I’m creeping on the ground out of embarrassement. :o
I meant IVY, Hedera helix. The standard German name is Efeu and one of the dialectal variant is *ewig * in Bavaria.
Apparently they don’t speak English in Texas.
It’s not clear to me where I erred in reading the quote. Perhaps I’m having trouble with the abbreviations.
I have heard natives around here speaking German, but most of us seem to speak a sort of Spanish.
You think?
O.E. Old English
P.Gmc. Proto-Germanic
M.Du. Middle Dutch
Du. Dutch
O.H.G. Old High German
Ger. German
O.N. Old Norse
PIE Proto-Indo-European
O.Ir. Old Irish
Yeah, but I think the part that threw me off was “OED says Fr. if, Sp. iva, M.L. ivus are from Gmc.” That’s just a little hard to follow late at night.
Cecils’s article doesn’t mention how long ivy, or any other plant or tree can live if you take a sapling and let it root again. One could debate if such a sapling would be a clone or the same individual, though.
In my experience, Common ivy (Hedera helix, its Dutch name, Klimop, doesn’t mean “forever”, just “climb-up”) lives as long as the tree it climbed. Once that one falls down (and Ivy weakens it somewhat, due to the weight and the light it takes away) the the ivy is generally torn from its roots and dies, too.
Ivy climbs on trees or whatever is available: stones, rocs, poles. Otherwise it crawls on the ground. I know of places where it covers a least two acres (half ha). And it’s no clone. It just grows no end.
My experience is that of a botanist.
True. For that matter, I gather many of our fruit crops (e. g., seedless anything) are essentially cuttings/clones of a single plant that we’re betting will live forever, more or less.
If they don’t speak German in Bavaria, then they don’t speak English in Texas.
Ah, I get you. Whoosh; sorry. But you said standard German. Since I last saw my Brit Lit teacher (Miss Smoot), I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone in Texas actually speak standard English. I’ve heard it on the phone a few times, but I think those folks were in Bangalore.
It’s all moot, though. I had no clue the OP had mixed up yew and ivy. How are yew and Ivy doing, by the way? 
It’s nice to see people understand the way corrections are offered and meant on the SDMB. There’s usually hard feelings in other Fora around here. Good on everyone in the thread.