Francisco de Castro asks: > I wonder if someone could direct me to studies/webs/data on lifespan of > plants, or rates of natural mortality (meaning excluding herbivory) as > related to individual mass/size. More specifically: how long a plant > will live (if is not eaten by an herbivore) given its size. I have > searched the ISIWoK extensively and found some papers for trees > (specially large trees) relating longevity to size at time of death, but > nothing for small plants. I already have Marbá et al. 2007, PNAS > 104(40), but in their estimates of lifespan, herbivory is included in > mortality rates.
The correlation between size and longevity that was often talked about does not seem to hold as much water as it used to. The now-believed-to-be oldest plant in the world is only a bush, a vegetative creosote ring in the Mojave Desert, California: http://www.ourwindowonnature.com/2007/05/06/the-oldest-living-tree-is-a-bush/ The plant is estimated to be 11,700 years old, twice the age of its nearest competitor, a bristlecone pine, which is also a small tree. Vasek FC. 1980 Creosote Bush: long+lived clones in the Mojave desert. Amer. J. Bot. 67. 246-55. Larrea tridentata. Growth rates. Oldest clones may be c. 11,700 years. Growth, Zygophyllaceae Wirt Atmar
