Some plants can live for thousands of years due to their ability to gather resources from their environment to grow, unique adaptations, and defensive strategies that allow for efficient use and protection of their resources, unlike the ingestion-dependent growth of animals.
The remarkable longevity of some plants compared to animals is due to their unique strategies for growth and survival. Plants have cellular and structural adaptations that enable them to live for thousands of years. While animals' growth is tied to the ingestion of pre-assembled nutrients, plants can accumulate scattered resources from their environment to build their structure. One example of a plant's extraordinary lifespan is evident in certain perennial monocarpic plants like the bamboo, which can live for over 70 years before flowering once, then dying off, significantly impacting the food source for species like panda bears.
Plants, being the primary producers in ecosystems, have developed various strategies to deter predation such as spines, thorns, and toxic chemicals. Moreover, their ability to photosynthesize using sunlight and carbon dioxide gives plants an advantage in utilizing abundant, non-animal resources, contributing to their potential for a long lifespan. As organisms subject to evolution, plants have also adapted to an array of environments, developing features to withstand various survival challenges.
plant longevity is a combination of their unique mode of growth, evolutionary adaptations, and the balance between taking advantage of the available resources and defending themselves against herbivores, allowing some to outlive animals by thousands of years.