These plants have a life span of several to many years. Some are herbaceous (iris, delphinium), others are shrubs or trees. The perennials differ from the above-mentioned groups in that the storage structures are either permanent or are renewed each year. Perennials require from one to many years growth before flowering. The preflowering (juvenile) period is usually shorter in trees and shrubs with shorter life spans than in those with longer life spans. The long-lived beech tree (Fagus sylvatica), for example, passes 30–40 years in the juvenile stage, during which time there is rapid growth but no flowering.
Some plants—cotton and tomatoes, for example—are perennials in their native tropical regions but are capable of blooming and producing fruits, seeds, or other useful parts in their first year. Such plants are often grown as annuals in the temperate zones.
Longevity of seeds
Although there is great variety in the longevity of seeds, the dormant embryo plant contained within the seed will lose its viability (ability to grow) if germination fails to occur within a certain time. Reports of the sprouting of wheat taken from Egyptian tombs are unfounded, but some seeds do retain their viability a long time. Indian lotus seeds (actually fruits) have the longest known retention of viability. On the other hand, seeds of some willows lose their ability to germinate within a week after they have reached maturity.
The loss of viability of seeds in storage, although hastened or retarded by environmental factors, is the result of changes that take place within the seed itself. The changes that have been investigated are: exhaustion of food supply; gradual denaturing or loss of vital structure by protoplasmic proteins; breakdown of enzymes; accumulation of toxins resulting from the metabolism of the seed. Some self-produced toxins may cause mutations that hamper seed germination. Since seeds of different species vary greatly in structure, physiology, and life history, no single set of age factors can apply to all seeds.
Much of what is known of the length of life of animals other than man derives from observations of domesticated species in laboratories and zoos. One has only to consider how few animals reveal their age to appreciate the difficulties involved in answering the apparently simple question of how long they live in nature. In many fishes, a few kinds of clams, and an occasional species of other groups, growth is seasonal, so that annual zones of growth, much like tree rings, are produced in some part of the organism. Among game species, methods of determining relative age by indicators such as the amount of tooth wear or changes in bone structure have yielded valuable information. Bird bands and other identifying marks also make age estimation possible. But one of the consequences of the fact that animals move is that very little is known about the life span of most species as they exist in nature.
Maximum and average longevity
The extreme claims of longevity that are occasionally made for one species or another have consistently been proven false when subjected to critical scrutiny. Although the maximum life span that has been observed for a particular species cannot be considered absolute, since a limited number of individuals at best has been studied, this datum probably provides a fair approximation of the greatest age attainable for this kind of animal under favourable conditions. Animals in captivity, which provide most of the records of extreme age, are exposed to far fewer hazards than those in the wild. In the accompanying table of maximum longevity, particular species have been so selected as to encompass the known range of longevity of other members of the taxonomic group to which they belong.
|animal||life-span in years|
|bat (Eptesicus fuscus)||2|
|grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis)||31|
|cat (Felis catus)||21|
|chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)||37|
|dog (Canis familiaris)||34|
|elephant, Indian (Elephas maximus)||57|
|goat (Capra hircus)||18|
|golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)||1.8|
|horse (Equus caballus)||62|
|lion (Panthera leo)||29|
|mouse (Mus musculus)||3|
|ox (Bos taurus)||30|
|squirrel, gray (Sciurus carolinensis)||15|
|wild boar (Sus scrofa)||27|
|blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata)||4|
|canary (Serinus canaria)||24|
|macaw (Ara macao)||64|
|nightingale (Luscinia luscinia)||3.8|
|pigeon (Columba livia domestica)||35|
|titmouse (Parus major)||9|
|alligator (Alligator mississipiensis)||56|
|garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)||6|
|box turtle (Terrapene carolina)||123|
|giant tortoise (Testudo elephantopus)||177|
|water turtle (Pseudemys scripta)||7|
|European black salamander (Salamandra atra)||3|
|spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)||25|
|frog (Rana species)||5–15|
|eel (Anguilla rostrata)||6|
|goldfish (Carassius auratus)||25|
|sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus)||50|
|ant (Lasius species)||15|
|buprestid beetle (Buprestis splendens)||30|
|fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)||0.1|
|bird spider (Avicularis avicularis)||15|
|Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni)||3–4|
|crayfish (Astacus fluviatilis)||30|
|water flea (Daphnia magna)||0.2|
|clams, various species||1–10|
|snails, various species||1–30|
|earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris)||10|
|medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis)||27|
|Adapted from W.S. Spector (ed.), Handbook of Biological Data, copyright 1956 W.B. Saunders Company, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of W.B. Saunders Company.|
Life span usually is measured in units of time. Although this may seem eminently logical, certain difficulties may arise. In cold-blooded animals in general, the rate of metabolism that determines the various life processes varies with the temperatures to which they are exposed. If aging depends on the expenditure of a fixed amount of vital energy, an idea first proposed in 1908, life span will vary tremendously depending on temperature or other external variables that influence life span. There is considerable evidence attesting at least to the partial cogency of this argument. So long as a certain range is not exceeded, cold-blooded invertebrates do live longer at low than at high temperatures. Rats in the laboratory live longest on a somewhat restricted diet that does not permit maximum metabolic rate. Of perhaps even greater significance is the fact that many animals undergo dormant periods. Many small mammals hibernate; a number of arthropods have life cycles that include periods during which development is arrested. Under both conditions the metabolic rate becomes very low. It is questionable whether such periods should be included in computing the life span of a particular organism. Comparisons between species, some of which have such inactive periods while others do not, are dangerous. It is possible that life span could be measured more adequately by total metabolism; however, the data that are necessary for this purpose are almost entirely lacking.
Length of life is controlled by a multitude of factors, which collectively may be termed environment, operating on a genetic system that determines how the individual will respond. It is impossible to list all the environmental factors that may lead to death. For analytical purposes it is, however, useful to make certain formal separations. Every animal is exposed to (1) a pattern of numerous events, each with a certain probability of killing the individual at any moment and, in the aggregate, causing a total probability of death or survival; (2) climatic and other changes in the habitat, modifying the frequency with which the various potentially fatal events occur; and (3) progressive systemic change, inasmuch as growth, reproduction, development, and senescence are characteristics intrinsic in the organism and capable of modifying the effects of various environmental factors.