MONDAY MUSINGS—WHERE THERE'S SMOKE...

**THERE WON'T BE AN IWSG POST TODAY, WEDNESDAY. SON HAD AN ACCIDENT AND I'LL BE AT THE HOSPITAL FOR MRI/XRAYS MOST OF THE DAY.**

The morning is sunny but cool and wisps of fog, like gossamer veils, hang from bare oak limbs weave in and around the pine branches. There’s a hint of wood smoke in the air. I sip my coffee to the thrum of wings flying over my head on the way to the bird feeders. Nearby the liquid warble of ok-a-REEEE tells me spring is here with the presence of Red winged Blackbird.

There is another interesting, but not so nice, tell of spring.

I’m in the kitchen making a cake for our desert later tonight when my husband comes in from outside.

“Did you see the smoke in the field across the road?”

I look up and out the kitchen window. I can’t see anything. “I haven’t seen any smoke. Are you sure it wasn’t Tule fog?”

“The winds blowing now and then but I’m sure it was smoke”

“Hmph. I was out earlier but I haven’t seen anything.”

It’s not long before my son, who had just taken his finance into work, walked into the house.

“Mom, I think there’s a fire or something across the road. There’s smoke coming from the woods by the field. Maybe somebody dropped a cigarette over there?”

I’m again at the kitchen window looking out. I don’t see a blasted thing and so I say.  “Mom, it’s there when the wind blows and the smoke comes out of the woods into the field.”

Out go hubs and son to investigate. I step outside but I don’t smell anything burning but the wood smoke from our neighbor’s furnace, a mile away. The same smell I caught when I was watching the birds and drinking my coffee. I’m thinking that my guys are delusional.  They can get that way at times. <grin>

About twenty-five minutes later my husband comes back in and in his best Inspector Clouseau voice announces, “The mystery is sol-ved.”

“No fire, right Inspector?”

“No, but I can show you what it is. Come with me.”

I grab a jacket and follow him out to the edge of the yard facing the field and woods across the road. I still don’t smell or see anything. “I’m here. What am I supposed to be seeing?”

Smoke is actually Red Cedar releasing pollen

“Just be patient and watch the edge of the woods.”

  

I’m about ready to go back into the house when a gust of wind blows and sure enough, from the edge of the woods is a cloud of smoke.  My nose is flaring but the smell isn’t from something burning. I should qualify that by explaining that my husband calls me the bloodhound because I usually can smell things others can’t.

Bronzed Male Cedar (left) female on the right.

So what is this smoke? 

We have a lot of Eastern Red Cedar trees, one of Missouri's more common trees, otherwise known as Juniperus virginiana. Red Cedar trees aren't true cedar trees, they're juniper trees. When the male cones are mature, usually late February through March in Missouri, they release their dust-like pollen into the air. The pollen is so abundant that small "clouds" of it are released when a gust of wind shakes the branches of a male cedar tree. When the wind rises, great gritty clouds of the pollen drift aloft, making the woods look like they are aflame. After the pollen is shed, the tiny male cones will fall from the trees. The pollinated female cones, on female trees, will continue to grow and develop into this year's crop of cedar "berries." Great news for birds and gin lovers.

Male cedar cones releasing pollen (Missouri forestry pic)

I had heard about this pollen release but had never witnessed it. I was now. I was also smart enough, considering we have several lining the property on this side of the yard, to beat feet for the house. "Let's go. You do not want to be out here as the wind releases this stuff. It can make you very sick." 

Female cedar w/berries (MO forestry)

And it's true, If there are multiple male trees releasing the pollen it is like a cloud of smoke from a fire and the wind can blow it four or five miles (or more) from the trees. At that distance the pollen is more widely diffused, but up close to the cedars it's dense and not all good to breathe in. It can inflame your eyes, throat, and lungs and cause itching and multiple sneezing jags. It makes a person lethargic as the body's histamines try to fight it off. It's nasty stuff.

Fortunately for us the wind was carrying it away from the house, but it's been rather uncomfortable the past week since we have a bumper crop of male cones—makes the cedars look almost bronze. No wonder it looked like wood smoke when the wind blew.

This will all be done soon and then comes the nasty yellow-green pollen of the oaks and walnut trees that coat everything in sight. I have no idea how bad that will be this year. Now, that pollen does make sick—headaches, irritability, and dizzy. I have several packs of face masks and it does help when I want to be outside. We're surrounded by forests of various wind pollinators like oaks, hickory, sycamore, and walnut. 

Blech!

The good news is it's not a fire and it's usually all done by the end of April.

(Pics not taken by me are from Missouri forestry archive pictures)