Do Trees Have Life Expectancies?

The more common question I’m asked is “What’s a good fast-growing shade tree?” For that one I really have no satisfactory answer because all fast-growing trees have at least one fatal flaw. In the words of an old country song, they… “live hard and die young.”

Many things add together to determine how long a tree is likely to live. Certainly the tree’s species comes first. Even under the best of conditions, some trees won’t be able to live longer than 15 or 20 years.

However, other things like soil type, climate, attacks by insects and diseases, proper nutrition, careful pruning and other routinely good care all play major parts.

Life Expectancies of Texas Trees…
In case you’re considering planting a new tree in your landscape sometime in the next few months, do consider its expected longevity. There are more highly skilled arborists in Texas who might tweak my list a bit, but it’s going to be fairly accurate.

I’ve stacked the common trees in order, based on my lifetime of working with them, from those that are going to have the shortest average life expectancies to those that are likely to stay around the longest time.

As you go shopping for new shade trees, you might want to stay toward the bottom of this list. Buy from a reputable full-time nursery, and be sure you’re getting a tree that’s healthy and vigorous the day that you buy it.

* These are average life expectancies in areas where the tree species are well adapted. February 2021 affected many species negatively, generally where they were being grown farther north than they should have been.