Marnie Chesterton

Do they mostly die of old age or does something else come for them?

To find out, we tapped into our scientific speed dial and gave Dr. Naomi Fraga, Director of Conservation Programs at the California Botanic Garden, a call.

So human interaction seems to play a large role in plants' susceptibility to death.

Michael, Sandy, listener Liz was inspired to write in her question because of her dying houseplants.

I've got to say, either of you green-fingered or are you adept at killing houseplants and can tell us how to do it?

I once killed a cactus, so we all know how hardy those plants are.

Wow, that is advanced-level plant killing.

I know because Michael has a farm that Michael knows how to look after plants.

Give Michael all your points, all the gold stars.

All the gold stars to Michael.

Well, another thing to bear in mind is that I'm constantly talking about these amazingly long-lived plants.

So I'm thinking of redwoods that can live for thousands of years.

And we talk about them on science shows because they are outliers and it's so majestic that something can live to 6,000 years.

A cherry tree...

will usually live to about 40 years.

There are some things that are just short-lived.

You know, plants sometimes live for a year and that's their actual lifespan.

So I will give our listener Liz one final word of comfort, which is that in the Royal Botanic Gardens queue, home of some of the most amazing plant scientists in the world, and these people can...

do these amazing feats of plant breeding.

And I said, have you ever killed anything?