# Are trees immortal?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757 "2005-04-29T18:38:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757/1 "2005-04-29T18:38:32Z")

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By that I mean: I know trees can live for a very long time, but will they live forever if not killed by changing climate conditions/ changing soil conditions/ lumberjacks/ beavers/ insects/ lightning strikes/ forest fires/ diseases/ etc.?

That is to say, do trees eventually die due to something akin to old age? For that matter, do trees show any signs of aging, other than getting bigger? I mean, I understand that the human body changes on the cellular level as we age – does something similar happen with trees? If not, do _any_ plants age? Or is it just that some can survive the cold of winter and some can’t?

And if trees _don’t_ age, why not? I mean, I thought aging in humans had something to do with DNA strands getting slightly shorter with each replication. (But I’m not at all sure I have that right.) If so, why doesn’t this happen to trees?

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**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757/2 "2005-04-29T18:54:15Z")

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> [@tim314](#):
>
> By that I mean: I know trees can live for a very long time, but will they live forever if not killed by changing climate conditions/ changing soil conditions/ lumberjacks/ beavers/ insects/ lightning strikes/ forest fires/ diseases/ etc.?
> 
> That is to say, do trees eventually die due to something akin to old age?

I don’t know about old age in the genetic sense, though I would assume that would be the case, I’m fairly sure that the tree would eventually exceed the ability of it’s constituent materials to support it’s weight. This could take a very long time, depending on the tree, of course.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757/3 "2005-04-29T19:18:48Z")

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**Cecil Adams** on [Do trees die of old age?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a900427.html)

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**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-trees-immortal/301757/4 "2005-04-30T02:37:21Z")

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Trees do get diseases. I figure that there must be some diseases that hinder the life span of trees. So I’m WAG ging a No on this one.