Mike,

The GWOJWKL was planted in the early 1970s, say 1972, according to Mr. Goto, my erstwhile landlord.

IMO, if one is going to concern his/herself about such matters, getting wiped out personally by an asteroid has a certain appeal.

Mike,
there are a few Jades posted here that are 70 to 80 years old! Remember Silverina?

Josh

LOL...I found that asteroid comment quite funny ;-)...

Thanks for the laugh.

Tom

This Jade Tree is about 1,750,000 days (4800 years) old, living and dying at about the same time at an elevation of more than 10,000 feet northwest of Death Valley:

{{gwi:472207}}

Ok, so this natural bonsai is Pinus longaeva, not Crassula ovata, but there are some (mostly me) who think of these as Jade trees. Anyway, the meteorite displays up there are terrific. It would be quite improbable to be hit by one, but anything could happen in this magical place. ;)

Brad

Funny Cactusmharris...asteroid,lol...

Mike, here's the link that Josh was referring to...77 yr. old Silverina. That's an amazing plant!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Silverina 77 yrs

Mike -

Back in the 1970's my husband and I were in a large mall in Lansing Michigan. On display there was a Jade Plant that was very well pruned and about 6' tall with massive trunks(about the size of someone's thigh). The pruning kept the plant very close to the trunk, and it was in maybe a 14" or 16" pot. The sign in front of it said that it was from some Asian country, I don't remember now which one, and that it was 500 years old. It wasn't a joke.
I do know that some Bonsais are passed down from generation to generation and this might have been the case with this Jade.
Both my husband and I were duely impressed. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me so you could see it too, but it is something I will never forget.

Val

cactusmcharris, my family and I didn't expect to laugh this hard first thing in the morning..You are too much..lolol...These days nothing suprises me anymore!

Josh, maybe I will have to end up passing my Jades down to someone in my family, but who is the question...lol. Maybe I will leave them to you if anything should ever befall me that doesn't allow me to care for them..:-)

Tom, lol. I am with you on that one!

paracelsus, that is one beauty of a picture..Did you take that pic..? Amazing, and the age of that plant..It is sad a human body much more complex can't live that long ha?

Val, if you should ever go back there, I would love to see what that plant looks like...You must of stood there in a amzement...It sounds majestic..

Thankyou everyone

well jades do live for a long time but they will die some day im sure of. and heres a thing to think about, when you take a cutting from a plant, the new plant will inherit all of the mother plants genetics as well as its age, so if you take a cutting from a 20 year old plant the new plant will be 20 years old as well. now think about this, the jade tree comes from south africa(as far as i know) witch means that some1 prob. brought home a cutting from it some hundreds of years ago, so who knows maybe all the jades we have in cultivation here in the western world originated from one plant. this might mean that the jade you have growing in your window sill is 5 times or more as old as you, of course lots of plants have been grown from seeds over the years so theres prob. some new blood in some of the plants :)

about 2-3 years ago here in Denmark all of our black bamboo plants died because they had all been propagated from the same plant, it is said that black bamboo lives for about 100 years and then set seeds and dies, so now we have to start all over propagating this plant.

Jonas,

There's a place in China/India that experiences periodic famine from (1) a certain bamboo flowering and (2) hordes of rats invade the land where the bamboo grows and eat everything. I don't remember the details, but I do remember thinking that I probably wouldn't have rodents as pets if I lived there.

I disagree - the new plant isn't the same age as the mother plant (it may have the same genetics), but you're absolutely correct on the geography - Crassula ovata does indeed come from the RSA.

well the whole age thing i don't know as much about, but i asked one of my gardening teachers about it and my dad who is an educated Gardner as well, they both told me that the plants made from cuttings has the same age, and i think i have it in some of my papers somewhere too.

I also disagree with the cutting being the same age as the mother plant....the new plant has to make its own roots and go through cell reproductions and such...and also new growth on a plant is not the smae age as old growth. I have new branches starting on some of my Jades but if i take a cutting of that new branch it will not be the same age as the trunk of my mother Jade.

Mary

just discussed this with my dad, and apparently he had misunderstood my question, i was wrong about the whole age thing. but the thing about the bamboo is true though :).

Whether it's backed up by science or not, I would consider a genetically identical cutting to the 'mother plant' a continuation of the plant's life, if for no other than romantic reasons.

Jonas,

I'm very happy that I don't have to tell your Dad he's wrong, because he's always right, right?

Blutarski,

Your handle - 'Animal House'?

And I agree with the romantic angle - it plays a large part in our affairs with plants, doesn't it?

In Africa, it is said that they bury their dead in old 'Jade Trees'If that is true it must be a very old tree, I have seen them in old communities here in Calif. 15 feet tall. Norma

he sure is :)
my teacher on the other hand isn't....

I have a large jade tree which my mum planted January 1974... it is as i type.. 2019.. so it is now 45 years old and still looking healthy and huge..it is easily 1.5 metres across and 1.9 metres high. it has gotten so top heavy a few times and fallen over, so we have propped it up..

I'm of rather mixed mind as regards cuttings having the same age as the donar plant. I do know however, that in grafting citrus for example a seedling will take many years to flower and fruit, but a grafted scion from a mature tree upon such a seedling can begin fruiting the next year. This would imply that it had retained the age of the donar plant.

Some of my Jades would be about the same age as Janet's. My brother planted them at my childhood home around '69 or '70. I transplanted a few (or at least 6 to 8 inch trunks of them) here at least 25 years ago. A few are over 6 feet tall and 8 to 10 feet wide. I will vote for the age continuation angle. The trunks and/or whole plants are the same trunks, only larger.

I will impose the Creosote bush analogy counselor!

Janet, could you please post of a picture of your old jade? I would love to see it and am sure many others would also. It sounds amazing.

Bill, what say you? I don't understand your post, so your analogy is lost on me. And post a pic of your oldest C. o., please.

Jeff, admittedly it is a loose analogy. The Creosote bushes in the Mojave desert are considered some of the most ancient plants on earth. One is considered almost 12,000 years old. They have a ring like growth pattern similar to Aloe claviflora. Although the original plant passed millenia ago the current football fields wide rings are considered to be on the original continuing rootstock. Enter ancient desert plant in your search engine and a few articles will pop up. Its one of those things like the line drawings in Peru. You have to be in a plane to notice something is going on below. I'll get a picture or two of my oldies. It is hard to get the feeling when they are all cramped up between other plants. I'll try to figure out something to use for scale.

There is a lowbush huckleberry plant in mid-PA covering many acres and said to be genetically identical and of many thousands years old. An aspen forest in the PNW similar and some form of ground fungus which I forget the name of is also said to have a gigantic monoclonal mass and thus incredible age. All these of course have been in continuous growth (same plant ?) although the origin point plant is dust centuries ago.

I bought mine at my school summer fayre in 1971 as a gift for my mum. It’s had many cuttings but here’s the little devil on the left and a 21 year old cutting on the right !