Is ‘botanical sexism’ to blame for Atlanta’s brutal pollen season?

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – If you’re viewing your spring through a seemingly yellow lens, it’s not imaginary. Pollen is everywhere, like white on rice.

“It’s pollen fever,” said Maxwell Kotelnicki, an outdoor horticulture manager at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. “Allergies are everywhere.”

Kotelnicki literally lives and breathes it in every day.

“It’s been a great growing season for [plants] this winter and this spring,” he said.

That’s one reason why pollen seems so bad this year, covering every horizontal surface in a not-so-fine sheen of splotchy yellow.

In Atlanta, a city where the trees have trees, the culprit is obvious. The local pollenating season runs from mid-March through mid-April.

“We’re right in the middle of it, right now,” Kotelnicki said.

It’s also setting records. On March 29, Atlanta smashed its pollen-count record by nearly 60%, registering a count of 14,801. That’s a massive increase from the previous record of 9,369 set in 2012.

When the trees pollinate is also important. Atlanta has numerous tree species that pollinate around the same time, including pine, birch, oak, and sweet gum.

You can also blame the males. Urban planning often includes planting male trees, which don’t drop fruit like females but do throw pollen all over the place every spring.

“One individual has male flowers,” Kotelnicki said. “The other individual has female flowers.”

It’s called “botanical sexism”, but it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison to people. Landscape developers choose male trees because they create less mess on the ground than female trees.

“Because there are no receptive female individuals to catch the pollen, it falls on your car and falls on your driveway,” Kotelnicki said.

The good news is that the season is entering the home stretch. Next comes the heat.

“It’s just a little bit of the perfect storm,” Kotelnicki said.

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