eli5 If you cut down a perfectly healthy tree, at what point would the tree be considered “dead”?

Question

I would assume the fallen tree would have enough nutrients to sustain itself for a while and would eventually start dying. Most living things are dying until they’re dead but what exactly is the threshold from dying to dead for a suddenly severed tree?

In: Biology

Answer 1

I’d highly recommend listening to The Infinite Monkey Cage podcasts.

One of their early episodes raised the question of when a strawberry is dead or alive.

I don’t believe they ever got to a conclusive answer, despite it being brought up constantly in subsequent episodes. It is a fascinating discussion though.