system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do plants have a life expectancy? Can you predict how long a plant will live, given the proper conditions?

There was a story in the newspaper about a tree that had "reached the end of it's life-cycle." It is the centerpiece of a large condo/shopping center, and is going to be removed for public safety reasons. They claim to have consulted 6 arborists who all said it had died a natural death, at approximately 125 years old.  I find this claim strange, considering the age of some plants alive on earth this very moment.
gpt
Yes, plants do have a life expectancy. Every species has its own natural life expectancy, but it can be also affected by the environment, disease, etc. A simple example would be annual plants - they germinate, grow, flower, set seed and die within a year.
Predicting how long a plant would live is a bit of a different story, mostly because of 'proper conditions'. Plants that don't live in a closely controlled glasshouse will have to survive changing conditions and that affects how long they live. Weather changes and climate changes, so defining 'proper conditions' is tricky, since plants that were perfectly adapted to a given environment 100 years ago don't have to be so perfectly adapted now (for example some seeds need frost before they germinate).