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Questions and Answers: 2020

Question: Admittedly, this verges on being a silly question... Has anyone ever estimated how many cells there are in a giant …

• Question

  Admittedly, this verges on being a silly question... Has anyone ever estimated how many cells there are in a giant sequoia tree? I've read there are an estimated four quadrillion cells in Blue Whales, and was wondering how that stacked up against our largest trees. Feel free to dismiss this as meaningless, although any thoughts you might have would be much appreciated. Cheers, SG

  Answer

  Dear stephengraves, the short answer is--I don't know. I have seen estimates, ranging from 500,000 to 200,000,000. The former measurement was for living cells (and most of the trunk of a tree consists of non-living, structural cells). So, the latter estimate might be closer to reality for an average-sized tree. Perhaps we could multiply this number by some factor to get at the number of cells in a giant sequoia tree. Best wishes.