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About Me
- Name: ahwan
- Location: Singapore
Animal Activist : Pesco-Vegetarian : Christian : Water Baby : Bballer : Gd Mother n Granny : Crazy Crooner : Herbal Healer : Budding Baker : Temperamental Home-Maker
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In my hands!
Well, I didn't know that there is something called a pseudo-snow in springtime. No not that day when it did had an erratic morning snow, there is SO MUCH fluff in the air these days! The housies and me all thought it was probably the cotton season, and even joked about collecting some to make a new bolster. The conversation ended there as we jumped around, playfully trying to catch as many of these wispy white clumps of fibre as they float about in the air.
In my bag!
One fine day after school, I decided to cycle off-course and saw some cotton fluff covering the grasses as I rode through an unfamiliar area. "Aww... So beautiful...", I sighed with a dreamy smile.
Are you cold, lonely grasses? Here's some fluff for a blanket. :)
Yesterday, I met up with a Spanish from CS and as usual, there was so much pretty fluff bouncing along with the wind. I was chatting with him half-heartedly about the usuals - culture, beijing, hometown, etc...- as we walked to the Beijing Fine Art Museum (that would be a post for another day) because frankly speaking, I was pleasantly distracted by the fluffs. I was STILL trying to catch the fluff clumps like a kid catching a butterfly. You know, it's so tricky; when I tried to grab/stamp on one, it floats right out of my hand/foot! I know it's rude to do this kind of things when someone else is trying to talk some really serious and potentially inspiring travel insights to you... but com'on, it was so fun! I couldn't resist!
Unable to hide my lack of interest in the really serious and potentially inspiring travel insights at that moment, I swiftly changed the topic as fast as I could in an attempt of trying to be more polite. Haha.
"Hey Jose, look at those fluffs! They are so cute! See!" I tried to stamp on a big fat fluff-clump right in front of Jose's feet, but unsurprisingly failed to catch it again. "I wonder where do they come from? I haven't been seeing any cotton trees around..."
"What? You mean you don't know what these are?" Jose sounded so shocked.
"No? What? Cotton?"
"Oh no no no... Now I see, Adele. It's the same in Spain, in spring. We have these too."
"Uh huh. You know, it's the first spring of my life! So what are these? Polyester fluff that decides to escape from teddy bears' tummies during springtime?" No, I didn't say that last part.
"It's er... pol..? Er, polgram? Ah, I only know how to say it in Spanish." Jose waved his hands animatedly in a bid to describe 'polgram'.
"Pollen?"
"Yes! Of course! Pollen!" Jose beamed and tried to carve the word 'pollen' onto his brain by repeating it again and again and again...
"So Jose, you mean we are like... walking among sperms now?"
(I know that totally didn't sound like a biological student who definitely has heard of airborne pollination, but just for the entertaining sake, I thought that was pretty funny to say at that point of time.)
"Ah! Yes! The trees are having sex now! Hahahaha!" Yay it worked, Jose was entertained.
Stray tree-reproductive tool, unfortunately still looking very virgin with much fluff intact.
Anyway, I googled the moment I reached home. So these fluffy clumps of pollen, known as 杨絮 (Yangxu) or 柳絮 (Liuxu), are released by female willow and poplar trees, which are almost everywhere in Beijing. Therefore, they aren't technically sperms, even though they really are sperm-like in their mobility and function. Upon more research, it's interesting to discover that as these fluffs are huge threats to vehicles engines, air-conditioning units, people with allergies etc, the government actually went on a huge sex-change operation targeting some 300,000 female poplar trees in the city two years ago. I don't know how it was like before, but it doesn't seem too "life-threatening" to me this year. Being someone non-fluff-allergic, it was simply breath-taking to have fluffs in the air without the nasty cold of winter! And you can actually play with the fluffs without them melting right away!
Some pictures that I got off the net. Wow, now that's A LOT of fluff!
Labels: findings, motherearth, wonders