Did plant life reproduce and decay in the Garden of Eden?

Question

Dear Gramps,

Concerning the Garden of Eden, I understand that the animals did not die or reproduce in the garden as Adam and Eve. Did the trees and plants reproduce or die? Did the fruit rot after time?

Brian

Answer

Dear Brian,

According to Mormon Doctrine, here’s what we don’t know. We don’t know when the earth fell from a terrestrial to a telestial condition. It occurred as a result of the transgression of Adam and Eve, but we have no revealed information on the time lapse between the transgression and the expulsion. It very well was not the immediate result of a command. The entire earth had to be changed from one condition to another whose differences from the first can only be imagined. Also, although Adam and Eve could have had no children until after the fall, that does not mean that the plants and animals existing in the terrestrial world, which was the condition of the earth before the fall, could not reproduce and propagate.

Gramps