longevity

Longevity: the importance or lack thereof of gaining a long live span.

Why do Redwoods and other related species live so long?

Still older than the redwoods?

Although longevity is loosely related to size,( after all the bigger you are the longer it takes to get to that size), the largest plants aren't necessarily the oldest. The redwoods and sequoias certainly turn in a impressive maximum longevity of 2200 and 3126 years respectively, but the oldest individual plant, the bristlecones can double the lifespan of the redwood. The cresotebush however has them all beat at nearly 12,000 years- in this species clones or offshoots branch off of the parent, each circle of clones giving rise to still another. Thus the heritage of a single plant may be carried through its offshoots for an incredible number of generations.

Species	Age	Source
Coastal redwood	2200 years
Giant sequoias	3126 years	(Fry and White, 1931)
Mountain junipers (Juniperus occidentalis ssp. australis)	3250
Alaska yellow-cedar; (Chamaecyparis nootkatenis)	3500 years .	(Franklin and Dyrness, 1988)
Bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata)	4900-year old	(Currey, 1965)
Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata)	age of the largest known clone approaches 11,700 years rings of creosote bush clones develop by irregular radial growth, stem segmentation and the production of new stems at the outer edge of stem segments)	(Vasek, 1980

Longevity of Other Species Although the individual lifespan of 22 centuries for coast redwood is impressive, it is hardly a contender for record longevity (Hartesveldt et al., 1975). are known to live for as long as , and (Vasek and Thorne, 1988) for (Glock, 1937), while the .i. may persist for nearly A on Wheeler Peak in the eastern Great Basin of Nevada is widely regarded as the world's oldest living tree . Yet these records pale in comparison to the estimated physiological age of the in the Mojave Desert of California, where. Based on established growth rates for creosote bush rings over long periods of time, the extrapolated