All living things have a life cycle: they’re born, they age and eventually they die. At least, most living things follow this pattern. Ginkgo trees don’t suffer from old age, which means they may be able to live forever.
Chinese researchers studied a group of trees ranging between three and 667 years old. They found that, unlike almost every other living thing, the oldest trees were just as healthy as the younger ones.
The scientists noticed that several genes related to aging are expressed at the same rate throughout the tree’s life. This is unlike most plants, which produce these more as they get older. In the same way, disease-fighting genes, which normally decrease over time, also remain constant in ginkgos.
Some ginkgo trees are believed to be one-and-a-half thousand years old, but based on this research, this could be just the beginning of their very long lives.
Lachlan Writes Science 