So I have heard of trees that are thousands of years old. Then there are some bushes and hedges that seem like they have been around a bit. Certainly some vegetation seems to outlive the hardiest of animals. Is there a limit though? Are there any plants that are effectively immortal?
For large trees, the limit is physiological, rather than genetic or anyhing; there’s a limit to how tall a tree can grow and still deliver water to the top leaves; there’s a limit to the structural properties of the materials(wood), then there is invasion by pathogens etc; in a smallish tree, an insect borehole might just heal over; in a larger tree, it may act as a path to the ‘dead’ heartwood for the invasion of potentially lethal organisms such as fungi.
Smaller plants can be pretty much immortal (although many are genetically programmed not to be, because this enables them to devote their entire energy reserves to the task of reproduction) - any plant that reproduces exclusively vegetatively is effectively immortal (immortal unless killed, if that makes sense).
Some types of fungus are effectively immortal, IIRC. There’s one in a national park up north that covers several acres, and will probably keep merrily living until a volcano erupts underneath it. It mass is largely buried belowground, so its nigh-immune to any ordinary environmental effects.
Related thread: Do trees grow old?, with a link to a Cecil column on the subject.
Here’s a page that lists some Really Old Things.
It would appear that some of these shrubs will indeed continue to live until something bad happens. (Climate change, new insect/disease, lava flow, etc.)
From ftg’s link
Like, wow!
I have a bunch of plants at home that I’ve grown vegetatively one way or another from a “parent” plant and I’ve wondered about how that sort of plant evolves. It looks like the answer is that using that mechanism for reproduction they don’t.