The Pollen Makers

  The Pollen Makers...coming to your town soon!  Yep, here in the Deep South, we are experiencing that lovely "yellow" time of year.  It is definitely early but pollen is floating around causing everything to be yellow until the daily rain comes to wash it away.  It is also the time of year that a lot of folks are never without a tissue and their allergy pills simply because, once they see the yellow, they think they will soon be sniffling. 

  Just yesterday, a friend asked about the "yellow flowers" that could be seen from the roadside.  "Up in the trees, there are these bright yellow flowers!  What are they?  They sure make the woods pretty!"   Those, my friend, are not what you think.  The pine trees are doing their reproductive thing and have put out their soft cones.   From a distance, the funky "soft cones" do indeed look a lot like yellow flowers.  Soft cones are pollen producers (male cones) and depend on the wind to disperse the pollen to the female cones or hard cones.   Pine trees produce both soft and hard cones.  The soft cones (which people think are flowers) are on the lower branches of the trees with the hard cones on the upper branches.  This is to keep the pollen from just falling on the female cones and promotes fertilization with other trees.  

  Once my friend heard that these were not flowers but what were causing all of the pollen, an immediate dislike of the "flowers" occurred.  "Ugh!  Pollen!  All that does is cause allergies!"  Once again, an explanation was due.  Nope.  Pine pollen does not cause allergy attacks.  The pollen is actually good for you and can be found in health food stores and down the vitamin aisle of the drug store.  Trying to explain this to my friend was a lot like talking to a brick wall.  The worst thing pine pollen does is make your car yellow.

  So, the yellow flowers are not flowers. Not all pollen causes itchy, watery eyes and sniffles.  And some folks just do not listen to reason.