What is the white fluff floating around in Northern Italy (Lombardy) in Spring?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 27 Jul, 2023
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Strictly speaking, they are the seeds and not the pollen š
Milano and surroundings are really green and full of mountains and trees and parks, poplars especially are quite popular (pun intended), and what you see is what itās mainly called ālanugine di pioppoā/āpoplar fuzzā.
Itās quite complicate and Iām not a botanic myself, so Iāll go for a simple explanation. Actually itās not strictly pollen, even if as you noticed everybody call it āpollineā: what you saw was the seeds of the trees moving around inside their mean of transport, that is the white āfluffā.
What happens in reality, is that in spring few kinds of trees release their already pollinated seeds using the white fluff at the same time, that many other trees and flowers release their much much less visible pollens. Lots of people start having allergic reactions, and as the white fluff is so much noticeable and perfectly on time, itās mistaken for pollens itself.
Finally, you can find poplar and other fluff producing trees almost everywhere. If you are in the area again, I can only suggest you a visit to Monzaās Park š
Itās the seed tufts of a poplar species, specifically Populus nigra:
As this article says:
The tree loves a wet, marshy soil. Which explains why there are so many poplars around Milan and in the Po River plain generally, which is a pretty soggy place. And in Milan, the problem of flying white fluff was truly awful. These pictures are not from Milan but are from that part of the country and give a good sense of the horror of it.
Same article has a photo of how the street looks:
Credit:stackoverflow.comā
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