2006-10-12 06:19:04 · 13 answers · asked by Apollo C 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Garden & Landscape
Yes they do. An interesting question today about plants aging and its effect on propagation.There is a lot of confusion on this subject because woody trees don't age like we do. Higher animals have a system of cell division that ages each new cell (by using telemeres), thus creating a life span. I have heard that plant chromosomes also have telemeres, but they don't act in the same way, so that each new cell is a ... new cell, age zero. Some plant individuals are tens of thousands of years old, happily asexually propagating in an ever expanding shrubby circle. Asexually propagated grapevines can originate from an individual from Roman times.
So, when you asexually reproduce a woody tree from one year old wood, you have a new individual no matter how old the parent tree is. Trees don't die from 'old age', they die because of system failure, either environmental, or physiological. They develop hollow trunks, are subject to weather forces, disease, insects, etc. They often increase their bulk to an extent that cannot be supported. If their physiology allows easy adventitious bud formation or back budding, they may virtually start over after a catastrophe, but if not, they die. This is how those shrubby ring formation last millennia.
2006-10-12 07:04:15 · answer #1 · answered by babitha t 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes actually they do, believe it or not. Trees when they get a certain age do die off, look in a forest you will see some dead trees there that in fact did die of old age.
2006-10-12 06:48:27 · answer #2 · answered by LunaFaye 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not likely that they are probably going to be chopped down before living a ripe old age. Some trees live on for hundreds of years.
2006-10-12 06:27:13 · answer #3 · answered by mmmporg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes but depends on the kind of tree
2006-10-12 06:26:47 · answer #4 · answered by modeledge 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. White pines have a fairly short life span. After 30 to 40 years, they will die.
2006-10-12 06:32:28 · answer #5 · answered by notyou311 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Come to think of it, that is a really good question. If it were not for man, polution, disease, errosion etc.. I wonder just how long a tree would live.
2006-10-12 06:27:56 · answer #6 · answered by Jeep Driver 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything gives in to age eventually somethings take longer then others like earth its decaying very slowly but it is. Eventually like all things will cease to exsit
2006-10-12 06:28:58 · answer #7 · answered by Babs B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, but 100's of years or thousands depending on the type
2006-10-12 06:21:20 · answer #8 · answered by Shiv 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, but unlike humans, before they die, they don't move to Florida and drive slow
2006-10-12 06:26:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes but most of them live way longer than humans...
2006-10-12 06:27:46 · answer #10 · answered by The_Red_Guy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋