THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9604300180
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Every year I feel a little tricked when these first warm days of spring arrive, because every year, I forget that along with warm weather comes pollen.
This year those blooming trees are taking the bloom off spring for me.
The pollen stops up my nose and makes me sneeze, but I can't bear to keep the windows closed so it also coats everything in the house. The pollen turns to yellow soup in the kitchen sink and I can draw pictures in the yellow grains on the dining room table.
I brush the dog and puffs of yellow smoke waft off her back. After a rain, puddles appear to lap on a yellow beach and lines of pollen that look like seismographic waves make their way around the porch.
Although many folks are not as allergic to pine pollen as they are to other forms of tree pollen, the pines take the brunt of the blame. As they make new pine cones, they are the trees that emit the bright yellow pollen grains that coat everything like confectioner's sugar sprinkled on a cake.
I have a giant gnarled pine that towers right near my house and it is puffing clouds of pollen at me right now. Any other time of the year, it's my favorite tree.
After checking some other trees in the yard though, I know the pines are not the only culprit. The sassafras and live oaks, among others, are doing their blooming best to send forth pollen across the land, too. On the other hand, oak and maples already have finished blooming, said agriculture extension agent Randy Jackson.
Jackson knows the oak and maple schedule well, because he is allergic to their pollen. ``I'm more sensitive to oak and maple and I'm not sensitive to pine,'' he said. ``I love spring and hate it at the same time because I'm so allergic to oak and maple.''
Early bloomers, oak and maple dragged on with their bloom, keeping Jackson miserable for a long time, because the weather was chillier a few weeks ago. The warmer the weather, the quicker the bloom.
``Once the warm weather hit, the pine has gone quickly,'' Jackson explained.
I have heard folks comment that the pollen seems worse than ever this year or there's more of it than ever. Part of that is because the bloom is going so fast. The other reason, Jackson said, is all the wind we've been having.
``The wind moves the pollen farther distances,'' he said. ``The wind has certainly dispersed the pollen over a wider area.''
With all the complaining we do, we still wouldn't really want to change anything because pollen is what makes the plants' world go round. ``The male flower part is what produces pollen,'' Jackson said. ``The female part has the ovary which produces the fruit.
``You can almost think of pollen as a little seed,'' he went on, ``and when the wind blows, it sticks to the female and the female produces the fruit.''
In the case of the pine, it's not actually blooming, but ``cone-ing.'' Those curly little pinkish-brown things I called worms as a child are the male cones that produce the pollen that fertilizes the female pine cone. In the case of the sassafras, its smallish yellowish-green flowers produce a tiny dark blue berry later in the season. The live oak's dangling little greenish flowers are males that help to produce the acorn.
``Some of the flowers are beautiful Jackson said. ``But you need to look real closely.''
Now, Randy, there's the kind of spin I need to put a better face on tree pollen season.
P.S. Don't forget the free program on how to take care of your new Easter rabbit, presented by the House Rabbit Society, at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Central Library.
PLANT SALES on Saturday include St. Martha's Herb Garden Circle herb sale, beginning at 9 a.m., at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church, 2020 Laskin Road; the Council of Garden Clubs' Spring Flower and Garden Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hilltop East Shopping Center; and the Herb Society of America's Herb Education Day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tidewater Community College, Chesapeake Campus.
NET FISH AND OTHER CREATURES on an ocean boat trip with the Virginia Marine Science Museum from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday. The trip, leaving from the Virginia Beach Fishing Center at Rudee Inlet, is $10 for adults and $8 for children. Call 437-6003. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
ABOVE: The curly male cones on the pine tree produce the pollen that
fertilizes the female cone.
AT LEFT: Sassafras' yellowish-green flowers produce a tiny dark-blue
berry later.
by CNB