How does a tree (or any plant, really), know to evolve to produce a delicious fruit or a poison berry, a seed inside an impenetrable shell, or invent a type of flying machine, in order to reproduce? (Each of these examples exists in my backyard)

How do they receive feedback about their evolutionary experiments? How do they know it worked/failed. [10]

  • meant2live218@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    4 months ago

    A generation just has to be the age gap between a plant and a plant from any of its seeds. So if a tree can start to flower and drop seeds around year 3, then it’s as minimal as a 3-year gap between “generations”.

    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      if a tree can start to flower and drop seeds around year 3

      Did you just make this up, or is it actually true for these kinds of trees that can be several thousand years old?

      • meant2live218@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        4 months ago

        Number was plucked out of my ass. But sure, let’s look at a redwood and see when they start reproducing.

        The Sierra Redwood can reproduce sexually (seeds in cones) as early as 24 years old, but one source I found said that seeds are usually not high-quality until the tree is 200+ years old. It also takes about a 2-year maturation period within the cone before being ready for planting. Other types of redwoods can reproduce asexually, which may have an effect on the rate of expression of the mutated genes.

        • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 months ago

          Sierra Redwood can reproduce sexually (seeds in cones) as early as 24 years old, but one source I found said that seeds are usually not high-quality until the tree is 200+ years old.

          That’s quite interesting. And impressive, too!

          Thank you for looking it up.

      • USSMojave@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        4 months ago

        It doesn’t matter how old the trees can ultimately live, just how long it takes for one of its offspring trees to grow enough to then itself make more offspring. And in some species of trees, that can be as little as 3 years

        • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          It doesn’t matter how old the trees can ultimately live

          Thinking about it has given me the hint to ask this question :)

          I’m not arguing, I wanted to learn something.