Eternal Propogation?

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I don't think that even a minority of our plants, even stem plants would live forever even in the best conditions. My Wisteria main stalk when it was going really good was almost to the point where the plant was getting woody and looked like it would get to a point where it would not support much new growth and eventually become "dead". Stem plants like my cabomba should grow well for a while and it could be a long time with good trimming and ideal conditions but eventually the main stem is going to either become too thich and woody to support new growth or it will lose the integrity of the plant all together and die.

I don't know if that answers the question or not but with a strict reference to the original stem or mother plant, I think that eventually it will not be a viable plant.

It will be intersting to see how my Anubius Nana does over the next couple years and how well the original rhizome is doing in 3 years or less. Will it support and grow new leaves or will it focus on dividing into smaller rhizomes and the "mother" rhizome will eventually become unviable and basically lifeless. If an anubias does this then I would think that most other plants will eventually have the same problem.
 
if u look at it in the point of view that life started from one tiny little spec then technically every plant that there is today is from one of the original plants that formed. so that means that the very first plant lets just say an apple tree..... technically spawned every other apple tree there is. meaning it has a endless lifespan since everytree is from the first one. if this were not true then apple trees would no longer exist assuming plants had a limited lifespan based on propogation. but u would have to believe that we all came from a spec lol i have cut off hundreds of plants from my hygro and the original plant that i had is still growing and still producing more trimmings. the old tissue on the plant may die but technically the top of the plant is still the original so even if the bottom (the original part of the plant) rots away and the top survives then that plant will continue to live on and propogate many new plants.
 
dapellegrini STOP IT!!! my head hurts. :lol:

But that was a very good point NoSvOrAx, one that I hadn't even thought of. Considering asexual proagation within the plant, we really don't see our plants change (geneticly). Aquatic vs non-Aquatic plants.

FWIW, Tom Barr does discuss the difference between growth rate comparing new growth vs old growth and how the new growth does grow faster, but I will have to look that up.

EDIT: I was off base, sorry. :oops:
Barr Report Issue 2 Volume 10: discuses plant biomass and how the increase rate rapidly slows down and becomes light limited due to the shading effect. It had nothing to do genetics.
 
NoSvOrAx said:
Lets call same and different: samerent

That's a good one .... :)

There is however, a word for a plant (or animal) that contains cells with different DNA (by mutation or otherwise): Chimera

Back to the original question: can you propagate a plant indefinity ....

I'd have to say yes - just because the mother plant had died, or the daughters (clones) had mutated does not mean the plant line had died. As long as some part of the plant or clone remains viable somewhere, then the propagation is still sucessful. In that sense, plants may well be immortal.
 
RK- I love this kind of stuff :)

mr. f - on the single mother source thing, i think you are still assuming sexual reproduction, not trimming... that is central to my pondering :)

See, my initial premise was that all plants must have a lifespan, even if it is 5,000 years. If this premise is true -- then will new plants created by trimmings (not sexual reproduction /seeds, etc) share the lifespan of the original plant, or infact have their own?

NoSvOrAx's point was well presented, that perhaps, in ideal conditions an aquatic plant does not have a lifespan. Even if your plant is getting a bit "long-in-the-tooth", if you could provide it a larger tank, say 50,000 gallons or more and all of the seasons and conditions that it needed to be optimally happy, is it genetically coded to self-destruct, like we are?

If not, then trimmings should propagate forever. If so, then the farther your trimming is from a seed-grown plant, the less life it has in it...

This is getting fun!
 
Here's another tangent. How long has the grass been planted in your yard, or your neighbors yard, or any other yard? Does it ever completely die off? I believe it goes dormant, but never truely dies off, then the next summer, springs back to life. And when you mow the lawn, you are in essence trimming off the mother plant, but the mother plant keeps growing. I believe that as long as conditions are healthy, they are eternal. Interesting thoughts though. ;)
 
What do I win?

And don't say algae, cuz I got enough!

heh

I'm not sure that grass is like a stem plant. I'd say it had more in common with a sword or fern type plant. New growth comes from the roots and I don't think you can get a cut blade of grass to form new roots... Not sure about that tho... Also, if you don't cut grass it will go to seed and die.... Cutting it seems to cause the new growth.
 
Well I guess you win fame and acclaim... But first you need to run some experiments to prove your theory and then check back in 50 years or so :)
 
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