Slow growth helps plants survive
It grows slowly, but lives longer. This pattern is repeated in herbs, shrubs and climbers from the Arctic to semi-deserts. An international team of scientists led by the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences analysed more than 3,100 plant species from five continents and found that slow growth is associated with longer lifespan across diverse groups of plants. The results, published in Nature Communications, also suggest that climate warming may indirectly affect plant longevity through changes in growth rates.
Ecologists have long assumed that there is a trade-off between growth rate and lifespan: plants that grow quickly generally live shorter lives. Until now, however, this relationship had been demonstrated mainly in trees or individual groups of plants. The new research shows that the same pattern can be observed across diverse groups of perennial plants and under very different environmental conditions.
“Plants differ in how they allocate their resources between growth and long-term survival. Slower-growing species can invest more in durable tissues, resource storage or protective compounds. This may make them more resilient and enable them to survive for long periods,” says Jan Binter from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The scientists analysed annual growth rings in more than 3,100 plant species from the Arctic, high mountains, temperate regions and hot semi-deserts. Modern anatomical methods now make it possible to determine the age of perennial herbs in much the same way as for trees. For the first time, this has made it possible to compare the relationship between growth and longevity across an exceptionally broad range of species and environments.
A striking example is the small plant Dryas integrifolia from the Arctic tundra. The oldest individual recorded in the dataset reached 145 years of age, while the plant grows by only about 0.1 millimetres per year on average.
The Arctic plant Dryas integrifolia and its annual growth rings.
The study also shows that growth rate is closely related to environmental temperature. Warmer conditions tend to favour faster-growing species, which generally also have shorter lifespans. The results suggest that changes in growth rate may largely explain why plant longevity varies along temperature gradients.
“This is also important in the context of climate change. If warming in some environments leads to a predominance of fast-growing but short-lived species, it could alter not only the composition of plant communities but also their stability,” explains Jiří Doležal from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Plant lifespan also affects how long carbon remains stored in plant biomass. The authors therefore point out that changes in plant longevity should also be taken into account when predicting future carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems. Until now, attention has focused primarily on trees, while the importance of long-lived herbs and shrubs has often been overlooked.
The research draws on a unique database developed over the past 30 years. It includes plant samples from five continents and environments ranging from Arctic tundra and the Himalayas and Alps to hot semi-deserts. This enabled the researchers to demonstrate that the relationship between slow growth and longevity is repeated across very different plant groups and environmental conditions.
More information
Jan Binter, Michael Peter Nobis, Jan Altman, Ulf Büntgen, Alan Crivellaro, Pierre Liancourt and Jiří Doležal: Slow growth as a strategy for plant longevity, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-76765-0