Senescence, ageing and death of the whole plant: morphological prerequisites and constraints of plant immortality
Abstract
We revisited the three strategies identified by Thomas (2013) to avoid senescence (clonality, durability of organs and programmed death) and propose considering them as traits of functional morphology that are involved in adult plant body formation and potentially relevant to effects of plant ageing. As an additional morphological character not mentioned by Thomas (2013) we propose adventitious shoot formation. however, it has not been determined whether these morphological characters represent constraints or adaptations to plant ageing.
We believe that by considering the role of morphology in plant growth and maintenance and conducting comparative studies of age-related phenomena across various morphological types we can gain a better understanding of the relationships between plant ageing and these phenomena.