GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

14-09-2004, 09:49 PM

(Iris Cohen) wrote in
:

does anybody know how many leaves trees are supposed to have?

I hope this isn't a troll question, but serious curiosity. There
is no specific number. It depends on species, location, and many
other factors. The larger the tree, the more leaves it will have.
Generally, a tree with large leaves, like a sycamore, will have
fewer of them. The same species in shade will have fewer & larger
leaves than in sun. At one extreme, Welwitschia mirabilis, a
primitive conifer from Africa, has only two leaves its entire
life, which may be 2000 years. The same two leaves keep growing
from the base as they wear out on the end. At the other extreme,
there are trees that grow in the desert or the far north, both
conifers and flowering trees, like Junipers and Tamarisks, which
have thousands of tiny scale leaves or needles you couldn't begin
to count. If a tree is healthy and growing, you can assume it has
as many leaves as it should. Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the
oncoming train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Welwitschia isn't a tree, but...

An important factor in counting the number of leaves on a tree is
time of year. Since Daniel is posting in fairly decent English, he
is likely in a north temperate area. If he would wait till some time
in December, the easy answer to his question would often be 'none'.
However, a quick scan and guess of the 25 year old mulberry tree
outside my window looks like perhaps about 50 thousand leaves. I
would expect that a large Giant redwood would have several million
leaves.

Sean