The tree cannot be immortal without pollination

Some plants can reproduce asexually, so many people think they can live forever, but a new study shows that this is not the case.

Vibrant leaves are one of the most fertile plants.
Photo: backyardbutterflygarden.com

For thousands of years, people have been searching for immortal life, but not yet successful. In contrast, plants have achieved that through asexual reproduction.

Gardeners make use of this ability to breed. They split leaves or cut branches to create new plants that are identical to old plants for genetic structure without the need for pollination.

In nature, plants are forced to reproduce asexually when there is no homosexual in the surrounding area to pollinate. It is a strategy that helps them escape from extinction.

The BBC said that Dr. Dilara Ally and scientists from the University of British Columbia, Canada studied vibrating poplar trees, one of the plants with asexual and sexual reproduction. Seedlings grow from the roots of the mother plant. A vibrating poplar tree has existed for up to 80,000 years and has a mass of about 6,000 tons. Biologists call it Pando.

Ally's group wants to determine the effects of asexual reproduction on plant fertility. They found that gene mutations in every aspen tree increased gradually after each generation created by asexual reproduction. The higher the number of mutations, the lower the reproductive capacity of the plant. That means that the aspen tree cannot reproduce asexually forever. At some point they have to create the next generation by pollination, otherwise they will die.