Plant Lifespan

[elephantnose]

My java fern mat seems to have a life span. Just recently it has formed a dead patch. I have not changed anything being doing the same maintenance as always. It's attached to a piece of driftwood not buried.


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[mattcham]

I guess you have to consider how plants reproduce. If the offspring plants have the same DNA, it does not mean that the offspring and the parent are the same plant. Some crayfish species can produce clones with no mate, but that does not make them immortal. Or does it? If a plant grows a new branch and that branch is capable of surviving independently from the mother plant, then is that branch considered an offspring?

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[mattcham]

If you cut an earthworm in two, both parts become independent earthworms. But I think they have a finite life even if you cut each new worm whenever it grows to 6 inches. Sorry for the bizarre analogy, but it boils down to whether there is more than one life (one organism) in one plant.

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[Pandicorn]

If you cut an earthworm in two, both parts become independent earthworms. But I think they have a finite life even if you cut each new worm whenever it grows to 6 inches. Sorry for the bizarre analogy, but it boils down to whether there is more than one life (one organism) in one plant.

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No that's actually a myth one end will die

 

[mattcham]

No that's actually a myth one end will die

You are correct, its the planarian flatworm that can be cut into two new worms (not earthworm).

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[Mebbid]

The new plants that come from a single plant definitely have the same DNA. Much the same way bacteria are genetic copies of the cell they were formed from. My statement about DNA is directly towards the argument that decaying DNA causes plants to die.