How old is my plant?

[ASongbirdAndAnOldHat]

My mum has a plant that is 50 years old.

I took a cutting from the base.

I've nurtured it for five years, is my plant five or fifty years old?

5, its mum is 50!

I’ve got a money plant that was a cutting taken from a plant that I got as a moving in gift in 1981, so it’s either 43 years old or 2 years old.

Ooh I was wondering this the other day OP! When does a plant die? Can they be immortal? What is a plant??

I tought this will be one of those tipical MN threads where people post picture (in your case of a plant) and ask for age and everyone is like "looks 50y old tree", although it is very obvious it is just three leaves on a branch

Interesting to hear your replies.

I feel it is and isn't five years old and is and isn't 50.

It is was still left on the plant it would be 50, so why does cutting it off make it 5?

@valadon68 yes does it make it immortal?

If grown from plant seed then I see it like I see children but if I cut my arm off and another me grew, then what?

Well I would age them by the age of their root system. So as cutting grow new roots of it's own, I'd age as a new plant. Dividing a plant I'd call it the age of an original plant.

But I suppose you could say the growth of the actual cutting could maybe a year or two old, so a cutting made 5 years ago could be 6 or 7 years old as another option!

It's five. The arm analogy doesn't work because we can't make young in that way. It's precisely because plants can reproduce via cuttings that it is natural to see the resulting plants as 'next generation' or 'new'.

I like the roots idea.

So if a plant is split at the roots then both plants would be 50 years old?

It's like triggers broom

I've got a cactus that's 40, and it's had about 25 descendents over the years. They just never die?!

In my world, yes! 😊

@FuckThePoPo

😆

Oh I thought this was going to be one of those can you guess my age post, and we were meant to try and guess the age of the plant. Feeling disappointed now 😅