When pollen makes you sneeze, you can blame it on the males. That’s because pollen is made by the male parts of a plant. The tiny pollen grain doesn’t become sperm until it reaches the egg-bearing female part of the plant. But once they hook up, a seed is born.
Wind-pollinated plants such as ragweed–a top allergy menace–can release one million grains each day. Trees, flowers, grasses, and even aquatic plants will soon be busy dressing themselves up to attract the birds and bees so that they’ll be more plants next year.
Meanwhile, each piece of yellow dust that will, in the next month, collect on every horizontal surface here in Pennsylvania represents a failed attempt.
Easy for me to say, since I don’t suffer with allergies, our physical reactions to pollen are a small price to pay for continued life on earth.
