Yellow peril. How spring's pollen siege affects cars and homes

The problem for many car owners is the regularly appearing yellow dust on cars. This makes the windows and body dirty, often requiring washing. As it turns out, this comes from the pine, which intensely pollinates in the spring. An expert explains how this pollen spreads quickly.

Spring is a problematic period not only for people with allergies but also for cars and homeowners due to the ubiquitous yellow powder that settles on our cars and the windows of buildings.

As it turns out, pines are primarily responsible for this situation, actively pollinating during this period.

The powder originating from pine cones is very light. For this reason, it can be carried by the wind over longer distances and settle in places even many miles away from the trees.

The amount of pollen that a single male pine inflorescence emits is enormous. Foresters estimate that we are talking about up to 5 million pollen grains. For comparison, that’s how many eggs 17 thousand chickens would lay in a year.

The pollen will be in the air for several weeks, and we have no choice but to deal with it. When much of it accumulates on our window sills or cars, we must grab water and detergent to clean the dirty spots.

Pine seeds are crucial for the development of forests in many forest districts in our country. Interestingly, the process of their acquisition is quite complicated.

Depending on the forest (commercial or excluded), cones are collected either from standing trees or those that have been cut down. After proper selection, they go to a special place called a decortication plant.

There, the cones — stored in special drawers — are heated, which causes them to open up and release seeds into special containers. Some cones also go to special centrifuges, which separate the seeds and are properly selected using a special machine.