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Kings Holly: Doing it For Himself?
The King’s Holly can technically be said to be one of the world’s oldest living organisms. While each plant is thought to live to around 300 years old, the way the plant propagates itself is unique. Instead of breeding as other plants do, the King’s Holly simply drops a leaf, which sprouts roots and becomes a tree all by itself. Reproduction by this method is cloning and the DNA of each tree matches that of samples from 43,600 years ago – making a case for the entire plant claiming to be that great age. The downside of this unique method of reproduction is that the plant is unlikely to be able to develop any defence in the event that a disease strikes…
