June 07, 1990 - Here's Summertime Looking AtchooC6 The Suffolk Times - June 7, 1990
Here's Summertime Looking Atchoo
By Paul Stoutenburgh
My son had been at Block Island for
the weekend and returned for a family
celebration. Within hours of his landing
his eyes became watery and his nose
started to run. The culprit — our annual
exposure to windblown pollen. Out on
Block Island there are very few trees
and, of course, the island is surrounded
by water which makes it relatively
pollen -free. Back on the mainland our
oaks, hickories and pines let go their
charge of tiny particles that in the
natural world are bound on their
mission of renewal.
All plants, like animals, obey basic
rules of breeding. One of the most im-
portant is that "inbreeding" weakens the
race whereas "crossbreeding" strengthens
it. Therefore, a plant's goal is to find
another plant with which to cross breed.
It accomplishes this by the time- tested
method of pollination whereby one
plant transfers its characteristics to an-
other.
Most of us know this simple but ef-
fective system of pollination, but usu-
ally relate it to bees and insects carrying
pollen from one plant to another. In
that situation a sweet, colorful flower
attracts an insect and rewards it with
nectar for transferring some of its pollen
to another plant. In this way cross -
pollination is accomplished.
Some Trees Have Catkins
Generally with trees in our area this
pollination is accomplished not by in-
sects and bees but by wind and, there-
fore, there is no need for colorful,
Focus on
Mature
sweet - scented flowers or rewards of
nectar. Here the oaks and hickories have
minute flowers arranged in long clusters
called catkins. We've all swept them off
our sidewalks and patios. These catkins
were developed for mass production of
pollen. The number of pollen grains
one tree gives off into the air is almost
incomprehensible. Often an oak tree has
a yellowish hue to it in early spring,
just from the number of pollen -laden
catkins hanging from it.
Our pines have a similar pollen -pro-
ducing mechanism. At the end of each
pine limb there are small pollen- produc-
ing cones that, when the situation is
just right and the wind the correct veloc-
ity, the tree literally seems to be smok-
ing with yellow pollen as it drifts into
the air. We can see this wind -blown
pollen on our cars as it collects on their
polished surfaces. We also see it in the
fallen dust that collects on the porches
and roofs of our homes. It is every-
where. We even breathe it, which ac-
counts for our occasional gagging and
spells of coughing. But this, too, will
pass as the season moves on.
What triggers the release is light. All
plants flower after a certain amount of
exposure to light. It's not the tempera-
ture. It's not the rain nor the nutrients.
It's the light that brings forth the flow-
ers with each one having its own spe-
cific requirement.
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Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
OAK CATKINS —Oak and hickory are the two main trees that give off
clouds of wind -blown pollen when their catkins are ripe. It's these tiny
microscopic grains of pollen in the air that cause many to suffer runny
eyes, stuffy noses and occasional gagging and coughing.
Most trees and grasses as mentioned
above are wind - pollinated and therefore
there is no need to attract the wind
which is more or less automatic. There
is no reason for showy, fragrant flowers
nor is there any reason for a reward of
nectar, therefore the flowers of trees and
grasses are small and insignificant with
no fragrance and no nectar. So we can
now see the culprit of today's itchy eyes
and runny noses. It's the pollen in the
air.
Why Pollen?
It might seem nice to some if we
didn't have this plague of pollen, but
we must remember it's essential to the
reproduction of most plants. Pollen
carrying the characteristics of one plant
leaves from the "stamen" via the air and
must somehow find its way to the
sticky surface of the "pistil" of another
plant of the same species which has its
own characteristics, hence cross- pollina-
tion.
What a problem has been set up. This
microscopic pollen grain, no more than
the size of a speck of dust, must find its
target the size of a pin head. That is
why nature has provided the plant with
these clouds of pollen to make sure it
reaches its target. It might seem waste-
ful but the system has never failed.
Each year a tiny grain of pollen lands
on the pistil of another like species and
grows down to the "ovule" where the
seed is eventually formed. This seed
now carries the characteristics of both
plants and in general this is how all life
is started.
I've gone into a rather lengthy discus-
sion of why we are having such an out-
break of hay fever now, not so much
because of the hay of yesteryear
(remembering that hay is a grass and
that is where this malady got its name),
but because of our wind -blown pollen
from our trees. In a few weeks it will be
all over, but in the meantime many will
suffer.
Yet if it's any comfort it tells us each
year at this time the system is working
as it has done down through the ages.
Of course, if we want to escape the peril
of pollen that swirls around in the out-
side world, we can always retreat to an
air - conditioned room that has filtered
out the pollen or to a treeless island off
shore.
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