I have often wondered about plants produced from division & especially from cuttings versus seeds. I realize division & cuttings are clones so are exactly like the mother plant, while there is always genetic variations with a seed.
But my question has to do with the aging of plants. Like animals I understand plants have a life expectancy. Presuming we have a plant that lives let's say an expected 10 years, and we take a cutting and start a baby plant at say 4 years, would we expect the baby's life expectancy as 10 years, 6 years, or something in between?
I have read that there are single-celled colonies (bacterium? alga?) that scientists believe to be millions of years old but I presume this is millions of generations rather than the original cell still being alive and still dividing. If not then I guess I fail to understand the concept that everything eventually dies.
