Yew

Yew trees have discovered biological immortality through continuous self-replacement. As the central trunk ages and hollows, new stems grow from the inside, eventually becoming new trunks that absorb the old wood. A yew that looks like a single ancient tree might actually be the latest generation in a continuous regeneration process spanning millennia. The boundary between individual and lineage dissolves.

This regeneration strategy makes age estimation nearly impossible. When the original trunk is gone, what remains? Some yews in British churchyards are estimated at 4,000-5,000 years old, but the estimates are controversial because the usual aging methods fail. There's no single trunk to core. The tree has replaced itself so many times that 'age' becomes philosophically ambiguous.

Yew's toxicity provides protection during this extended lifecycle. Nearly every part of the tree is poisonous to mammals - a defense strategy that lets yews persist in landscapes with heavy grazing pressure. Deer and cattle learn to avoid yews, giving them space to execute their multi-millennial regeneration cycles without interference.

The business parallel is organizational continuity through continuous renewal. Companies that replace their core business while maintaining their identity - like IBM's multiple reinventions or Berkshire Hathaway's evolution from textiles to insurance - achieve longevity through transformation rather than preservation. Yew teaches that the longest-lived organizations aren't those that stay the same but those that continuously regenerate while maintaining coherent identity.