Blowing' in the Wind: Cones, Catkins and Pollen

We have a  few extra seasons  here in the South. Like the rest of the country, we have the usual four seasons but  we also have tornado season and pollen season. Actually, since we are in what's sometimes referred to as Dixie Alley, we have two tornado seasons  in Alabama. The spring tornado season spans  March, April, and May, and we also have a fall tornado season  in November and December.  So far this year our local area has been lucky but some areas of the state   had significant damage from tornadoes last month.

With other  places  having to  contend with much more severe problems it seems petty to complain about  the other season  I mentioned: pollen season.  But I just can't help myself. We are  currently  sneezing, hacking and gazing out of our red, watery eyes at a world covered in chartreuse dust. My car is no longer gray, but a sickly lime green. I can write in the pollen dust, it is so heavy! I have to run the windshield washer and wipers whenever I get in the car  just to be able to see out the windshield.  And much as I'd love to open the windows in the house to let in the breeze, I know the floors, curtains and  all the furniture  would  soon be covered in pollen, too.

Pine  gets most of the blame. Years ago, when our street was first named Pine Hill Road, we had an abundance of pine trees. Many of them have since been cut down, but there are still enough left  to deposit massive amounts of pollen everywhere. The little  male pine  cones do a yeoman's job of  trying to keep the species going.  The ground is covered with   their exhausted little bodies,  all spent of pollen. Many of the older female cones that have already dropped their pollinated seeds have joined them on the ground, leaving  reproduction to their younger sisters. Here are some of the spent males pollen cones on our front steps  and a few  more  joining the  spent  female cones on the ground under the trees.

Pine trees are  not the only  ones producing pollen, though.  The oaks are covered with little catkins, too, all ready to burst open and release their pollen at any moment.  The squirrels will be happy when that happens because they  know that the female  flowers, once pollinated, will  begin to produce acorns, thus guaranteeing them a winter food source. And by burying the acorns, and sometimes  failing to  dig them up,  the squirrels are  in effect planting  oak seeds and aiding in the regenration of  the oaks. I can remember planting  one of the oaks  out front.  It doesn't seem so long ago, but since oaks don't begin to bloom and produce pollen until they're  twenty,  it  must have been at least twenty years ago.

At any rate, as windy as it's been lately, pollen is  spreading far and wide and soon pollen  season will be over. I won't  be sorry to see it end. In fact, I wouldn't mind a good, hard  steady rain to help it along and wash  the pollen  dust away so we can all breathe easier  again.