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| A sweet little grape flower...or rather a whole stem of them. They smell so good, but oh, such pollen |
Plant love that is. First the cottonwoods released uncountable millions upon millions of fluffy seeds, coating the river with white stuff and making us sneeze when they floated into the car.
Next came the grape pollen. While everyone blames any number of other plants, I know that I am sneezing again today, and I don't even have allergies. However, something has to happen when there is so much greenish-yellow pollen in the air that every single cove and eddy on the river is clogged with it.
It looks like some kind of noxious algae, cozying up to the shore and flopping up on the rocks in the waves, but it is just pollen from the Riverbank Grapes, vitis riparia, that festoon anything they can climb on everywhere you look. Come fall the little orange-seed-sized black-purple fruits will be on a lot of mammal and avian menus.
It boggles my mind to think of all the seeds and fruits being formed and distributed by plants all around us in this season.
WHEW! Cottonwood season...ours is starting here. It makes a mess everywhere on screens, in the air, and on the ground. I'm always glad when the wind blows during cottonwood season! :)
ReplyDeleteI started sneezing just reading this.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I have had a lot of fun taking photos of the fluff in the air! lol
ReplyDeleteJan, yeah, even I am sneezing and I don't even really have any allergies. There is just so much pollen, dust and fluff in the air! You should see the cars in the morning!