See those funny, noodley, wormy things covering the ground right now under some of those evergreen conifers? Are you sneezing a lot, but don't have a cold? Yea, those are the pollen (male) cones of conifers. They are produced in the fall and winter by some species, and one of those is the deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara).
All conifers have TWO types of cones. That's right: what you think of as a "pinecone", you know the ones, they're the cones you collect, and cherish, and store on shelves in perfectly sized jars (that's not just me, right?), well they are just half the story. Those are the female, or seed cones, and they get pollenated month and months before you see them hanging on the trees in summer (or incidentally standing on the trees for our true cedars). The pollen cones are usually much smaller and disintegrate fairly quickly, but not before they throw their heaps of pollen to the wind covering everything you've left outside in fine, yellowish dust.
I found this tree on a walk ‘round the neighborhood, and a few weeks ago I did a tree walk with a fabulous group of folks and one of the burning questions was about these little pollen cones. They had fallen profusely all over one of their cars, and I was hoping we would be able to find one at the arboretum, but the tree we passed with low enough limbs had nothing for us. Oh well. Here is a way better example!
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