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[From Latin verb "senescere" = to grow old
] SENESCENCE:
- The aging process:
The universal, intrinsic, progressive, and deleterious organic process
of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age, the
condition resulting from the transitions and accumulations of the
deleterious aging processes. Cf.
aging
- Decline or degeneration:
Any complex deteriorative processes that terminate naturally the
functional life of an organ or organism as with maturation, age
or disease stress.
- Agedness:
The property characteristic of old age
- The period near the end of an organism's life cycle:
The state of old age characteristic of the later periods of the
lifespan, the last stage in the development of multicellular
organisms, during which loss of functions and degradation of
biological components occur. A physiological ageing process in which
cells and tissues deteriorate and finally die. In plants or plant part
is the growth stage from maturity to death, characterized by an
accumulation of metabolic products, an increased respiratory rate, and
a loss in dry weight.
- In deciduous plants, the process that occurs before the
shedding of leaves:
The aging and drying of a leaf triggered by an increase in the enzymes
that promote the breakdown of plant cells that prevent damage during
winter. Begins when shorter days and cooler temperatures occur
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