Pollen grain (Opium poppy)
30.2 µm
Equatorial diameter
A single grain of poppy pollen, with its three furrows. About 30 µm across.
Published
How big is that?
30.2 µm is 3.9 times a red blood cell and 43% of the width of a human hair.
Pollen grain is the 8th smallest of the 32 Tiny Worlds objects, and the 8th smallest of the 172 objects across all five SizeItUp games.
Size comparison
To scale, smallest to largest: Pollen grain in orange beside the Tiny Worlds objects nearest in size, in teal.
| Object | Size | vs Pollen grain |
|---|---|---|
| Neutrophil (White blood cell)The most common white blood cell, with its lobed nucleus. | 10.5 µm across | 35% of the size |
| Giardia (Trophozoite)The single-celled gut parasite whose two nuclei look like eyes. | 15 µm long | 50% of the size |
| Pollen grain (Opium poppy) | 30.2 µm across | – |
| Human hair (Width)A strand of scalp hair, measured across. | 70 µm across | 2.3× bigger |
| Human egg cellThe largest cell in the human body, at ovulation. | 0.115 mm across | 3.8× bigger |
In other units
| Micrometres | 30.2 |
|---|---|
| Millimetres | 0.0302 |
| Metres | 0.00003 |
How it's measured
Equatorial diameter. Mean of measured grains (Plants 2023).
Planets spin, so they bulge at the equator: the equatorial diameter is a little larger than the distance from pole to pole.
Sources
- europepmc.org: Plants 12:2105: equatorial diameter 21.46-35.03 µm, mean 30.20 µm.
Checked against the source on .
Could you have guessed it by eye?
Pollen grain is one of the objects in Tiny Worlds, a daily size comparison game: you stretch a shape to the size you think is right beside one you know.