Cypress Smoke

[atalanta]

In my (UK) front garden is what looks like a golden cypress ( not leylandii). It may be 30 years old, but not more. My son visited today and bumped into the trunk. Immediately the tree disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke. This happened a few more times when he deliberately shook it later. It certainly wasn't smoke - so what was it ?

[carrust]

Pollen

[EcclesCake]

Yep, definitely pollen.

[carrust]

Not nice if you suffer from hay fever:-(

[Milvus]

Today's the day obviously. The cypresses in the gardens of the flats I live in have been puffing away most of the day

[yucker j]

same thing happened to me, as birds were flying off the tree, my wife thought that our tree was on fire, does this do the tree any long term harm? my dad planted ours about 35/40 years ago,

[Chipchopper]

I remember seeing something like this a few years ago, when I saw a dense cloud of smoke being blown by a strong gust of wind.
I was convinced something was on fire but when I turned the corner, what it turned out to be was a large female yew tree shedding clouds of pollen.

[Milvus]

yucker, it's normal and necessary. It's how they reseed themselves so no harm at all