Hello everybody in discussion,

I see, still answers comming in. A pitty to see is all that picking on
eachother.

I mentioned earlier that i am not a biologist, but when I read some answers
I agree. Even if English is not my mother toung i do think to understand
quite well.

Probably an answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Some orchids might become old, other species might die earlier. Probably
like with trees. Slow growing ones like (Quercus)oak tree can become very
old, and I mean real old like 15oo years if we let them get that old, and
than there are (salix) willow trees which have a short life time from about
30-40 years.
Why couldn't it be the same with orchids?

There is still to do a lot of different research on themes that scientist
don't know answers on yet. That's the nice thing about it, to discover of
find out something new.

In 200 years time from now we all will know more. Science and research still
going on. Building up knowledge for further generations.

A pitty that we as humans won't get answers to all our questions in our
relatively short life time. And good to know that plants and some animals
can get older than we do.

kind regards to everybody,

Chris







Bryan heeft geschreven in bericht
. ..
What's a "telemores"?

I think that when discussing the age of any species, it is fair to
keep in mind the difference between "forever", and a few hundred, or a
few thousand years.
Sugesting that orchids may be "immortal" is completely inaccurate, and
I just wanted to steer the discussion away from that conclusion.


Larry Dighera wrote in message
. ..
On 22 Jun 2003 16:37:39 -0700, (Bryan) wrote in
Message-Id: :

If orchids can live "forever" then that would put them in a special
category not shared by ANY OTHER living thing in known existence..
Genetic material does decay... Eventually..
No matter how old the plant, or how many times it has devided or grown
new crowns, the genetic structure is as old as the original seedling.
In other words, if the DNA is not refreshed by reproduction, and
sowing of new seed, then like anything else, the life sustaining force
of the genetic structure does eventually die out.
True, with orchids, this may take in excess of 150 years to occur,
given optimum culture... But it will happen.

Would "the life sustaining force" you mention have anything to do with
telomeres?