Smoking Evergreen! (2 Viewers)

I'm sitting out in my backyard this afternoon on a sunny spring day and as I look over toward the corner of my yard I see a puff of smoke. As time goes on I see more puffs of smoke coming from A 20' tall evergreen bush-tree that I have in my yard. I thought my neighbor was playing a joke on me by blowing puffs of smoke through a tube or something so I decided to go over and check it out. Upon closer investigation I realized that there were tiny little seed balls on the green part of the tree that were popping and sending out clouds of some kind of spores or something that looked like smoke. It made it appear as though the tree was catching on fire. Does anyone know about this phenomena? B

Ah, the lovely pine pollen. You should see my yard at the moment. It looks like it has been visited by a fairy sprinkling lime green pixie dust. All over the place.

Oooo, that sounds actually kind of pretty, KC! We have a similar phenomenon here with our alligator junipers. When there's no wind at all, it looks like thin tendrils of smoke wafting upwards from the trees, but when any breeze at all comes up, it looks just like dust blowing. Don't stand downwind! <ah-chooooooo!>

lvn600 said:

I'm sitting out in my backyard this afternoon on a sunny spring day and as I look over toward the corner of my yard I see a puff of smoke. As time goes on I see more puffs of smoke coming from A 20' tall evergreen bush-tree that I have in my yard. I thought my neighbor was playing a joke on me by blowing puffs of smoke through a tube or something so I decided to go over and check it out. Upon closer investigation I realized that there were tiny little seed balls on the green part of the tree that were popping and sending out clouds of some kind of spores or something that looked like smoke. It made it appear as though the tree was catching on fire. Does anyone know about this phenomena? B

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Hello Ivn600,

As others have pointed out, what you are seeing is simply pollen being released on the breeze. Pine species have no flowers to attract pollinating insects (in fact pines were present on this planet before insects). Therefore utilising the wind is the only way pollination can be carried out.

Sometimes in my local forests the pollen is so thick in the air it looks like mist, a beautiful site to see, but not sao pleasant if you suffer from Hay Fever.

Harry

harry eales said:

Hello Ivn600,

Sometimes in my local forests the pollen is so thick in the air it looks like mist, a beautiful site to see, but not sao pleasant if you suffer from Hay Fever.

Harry

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Exactly, Harry! For those of us with spring allergies, pine trees are a royal pain. That pollen seems to get into everything (which, I guess, is the whole point!) My red truck ends up with a yellowish green tinge to it and don't try walking outside barefoot during pollen season or you'll leave the same color footprints all over your house!

Yes I name is Tiwonda wow its so wonderful to know im not going crazy at my old age earlier today around 10:30am I was on my porch smoking i looked up an I saw this cloud of smoke coming from across the street in my neighbors yard of of the pine bush at that point I began to think how my smok traveled all the way over there so I said to myself man my eyes playing tricks on me so I went back in the house puzzled saying I know see smoke so I went back out an there it was again so then I tried to see around the tree to see if kids where over there but it was so I started to call the fire department then I seen these birds flying into the tree an there goes the smoke again i really thought my eyes where playing tricks on me started calling people up telling them what I saw an no one believed me they all just laughing so I said forget but couldn't so I'm hear searching the web too see if I was going crazy to find out im not that's a blessing t me cause I never seen such a thing in all my day to find out I was tripping

Not sure where you are in the States but I assume you are west from me due to the fact I haven't reached 10:30 a.m. yet.
Could what you saw this morning could it have been heavy mist?

Hi there Tiwonda and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like.

Gm it's 10:08 am here im in Rocky Mount NC an im sure it wasn't moring mist

I watching that right now from a tree found broken off from a huge trunk laying in my front yard but it's pecan?