# Limit of vegetative lifespan **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905 "2004-09-10T12:12:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/1 "2004-09-10T12:12:28Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/2 "2004-09-10T13:13:24Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/3 "2004-09-10T13:54:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/4 "2004-09-10T14:50:27Z")
Related thread: [Do trees grow old?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=11571&highlight=tree+longevity), with a link to a Cecil column on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/5 "2004-09-10T15:35:13Z")
[Here’s](http://www.extremescience.com/OldestLivingThing.htm) 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.) ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limit-of-vegetative-lifespan/263905/6 "2004-09-10T16:33:21Z")
From **ftg** ’s link > [@](#): > > King’s Holly (Lomatia tasmanica) - found in the desert of Tasmania. Scientists estimated the age of the plant using a nearby fossil of an identical plant. It was found to be over 43,000 years old! The plants appear to be sterile - incapable of producing flowers and viable seeds. Lomatia is triploid, that is, it has three sets of chromosomes instead of two. Because of this it is unable to sexually reproduce. The clonal thickets reproduce vegetatively by root suckering. Fossil leaves found in a late Pleistocene deposit may be genetically identical to present-day plants. 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.