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ORCHID FUNGUS MIMESIS. "The floral parts of these flowers simulate fungi and emit mushroom-like odors. Fungus gnats are misled by a suite of cues so that they lay their eggs in the flower and pollinate it in the process. The flowers are inedible so the larvae eventually starve to death." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

ENGROSSED. "I was never more interested in any subject in my life than this of orchids." (Charles Darwin). https://lnkd.in/dQ3aG5K View in LinkedIn

OVER-SIMPLIFIED. "However, the plant-pollinator relationship is somewhat more complex because brood-site deception is not the only means of pollinator attraction. The flowers also produce nectar which is consumed by male and female flies, both of which pollinate the orchid." https://lnkd.in/db9X2SK View in LinkedIn

PLANT MERISTEMS. "This structure allows perennial plants to explore the environment vertically in the search for light, and enables some of them to be very large and to have a very long life span. Some trees such as sequoias and pines, among others, can grow up to 100 m in height and survive for centuries and even millennia." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03360.x/full View in LinkedIn

APICAL MERISTEMS. "In contrast to most animals, plants have a tremendous plasticity in the form and function of their organs. This is particularly relevant in perennials, in which the apical meristem of at least one of their shoots remains indeterminate beyond its first phase of growth and development. Perennial plants organize their body growth in the vertical plane, based on the division and differentiation of meristems." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03360.x/full View in LinkedIn

10,000 YEAR OLD ENDOLITHS. "Some endoliths have extremely long lives. In August 2013 researchers reported evidence of endoliths in the ocean floor with a generation time of 10,000 years. These are slowly metabolizing, not in a dormant state." (Endoliths are extremophiles living inside rock). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organisms View in LinkedIn

80,000 YEAR OLD GRASS COLONIES. "A huge colony of the sea grass Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea is estimated to be between 12,000 and 200,000 years old. The maximum age is theoretical, as the region it occupies was above water at some point between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organisms View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT PLANT CLONAL COLONIES. "Pando is a Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen) tree or clonal colony that has been estimated at 80,000 years old. Unlike many other clonal "colonies" the above ground trunks remain connected to each other via a single massive underground root system. Whether it is to be considered a single tree is disputed, as it depends on one's definition of an individual tree." https://lnkd.in/dseQDtg View in LinkedIn

CONTRARIAN. "The quaking aspen clones estimated to be over 10,000 years old, creosote bushes (Larrea tridentate) said to be 11,700 years old, and the 1400 year-old bracken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum) (Oinenen, all suffer from the same criticism." https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

NEGLIGIBLE RISK OF DEATH. ""The combination of modular growth and dormancy in perennial plants, two features individually shared with some animals, increases their plasticity and strongly reduces the potential damage caused by aerobic life, to the extreme that the likelihood of dying from aging is, at best, negligible." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03360.x/full View in LinkedIn