Answer 1:
The simple answer is yes, all plants die. Plants
are very different than we animals are, though,
and the answer to your question is actually not as
simple as that. First, plants have what's
known as "indeterminate growth." That means
that,unlike animals, there's no set size or age
when a plant is considered mature or old. If
conditions are right, they can simply grow and
grow with almost no limitations. (The two
limitations they'd eventually experience would be
that they'd get so big that 1. they could no
longer support the weight of their own bodies, and
2. water could no longer travel reach all the way
from their roots to their branches.) If humans and
other animals were like this,it would be like you
being 25 feet tall and still growing as long as
your parents kept feeding you! The second big
difference between plants and animals is that most
plant cells can change at any time into another
cell type, dividing many, many times in the
process. This is called being "perpetually
embryonic," and it's why plants can keep growing
indefinitely. It's also why you can stick a leaf
or green twig in a glass of water and it will
start growing roots. Animals have very rare and
special cells like that called stem cells, but
most animal cells are stuck being what they are
(like skin cells or nerve cells),and they can't
really divide much anymore. What all this means
is that the reasons why animals die (we stop
growing,our cells stop dividing and "wear out")
don't affect plants. Many kinds of trees commonly
live for thousands of years. Other plants send up
new plants from the end of their roots--those new
plants do the same thing, and this continues on
and on until you have a single plant that's many
miles across!It looks like many different plants
to us, but that's just because we can't see that
they're all connected underground. The first part
of the plant in the middle may eventually die, but
all its other parts keep living and living--I
don't know if anyone knows how old those plants
can get. Just because of the laws of physics,
though, I think it's safe to say that even those
plants eventually die. Plus, you have to remember
that conditions in nature are never perfect for
very long. So, even though a plant has the ability
to possibly live forever, something will
eventually happen to kill it, like drought, fire,
disease, or other plants using up all the soil
nutrients. Excellent question! Click Here to return to the search form.
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