UGH! Live Oak Pollen Turning Me Green!

Beautiful, majestic Live Oak trees. We love ‘em! We hate ‘em!  A frustrating dichotomy wrapped up in our most populous native tree. We have been known to pay extra for a house surrounded by oaks and we will park miles  from a store just to shade our vehicles in the summer months. We even photograph them and worry about  them and love them. We also cuss them during the early Spring when they shed their leaves…endlessly

Once the leaves are done falling, they taunt us one more time when they form their male flowers, or catkins, which spew forth a seemingly endless amount of pollen, and coat everything in thick yellow-green  powder and trigger horrendous allergies for many people. The catkins will eventually turn brown and  fall to the ground coating EVERYTHING! You may find yourself staring at the mess and wondering if they will  just disappear if you ignore them. You will make temporary enemies of your family members when you force them to  help clean up the mess but like many of our loved ones, we get through the  tough times and quickly return to a time when it is easy to remember why we  fell in love in the first place.