After a good, strong, pounding, soaking rain, it's funny to see the blooming acacias with their branches drooping and their proud, bright mustard blooms dimmed to a pale, washed-out yellow-green. Under each tree, a wet yellow carpet of thick pollen, washed from the branches to paint and stain the asphalt and grass.
The acacia trees have been going CRAZY. I don't know if you have these where you live. 9 out of 10 parts of the year, they look just like ordinary trees. You couldn't pick one out of a lineup.
But then, as it starts coming on to spring...whoa, nelly! They start blooming like the bejeesus with bright yellow pollen! The whole tree turns yellow.
And they're all over the place! I only just started noticing it last spring, maybe the spring before. They're everywhere! How can that be? These are full-grown trees we're talking about. It takes many years for one to grow that big. Yet I really feel like a few years ago, there weren't these continuous groves of yellow acacias stretching along Hwy 17 every day as I drove to work. How could they just "pop up"?
Unless...maybe they don't reproduce as other trees do. Maybe they spread by "taking over" neighboring trees, year by year, until there's nothing but an unbroken sea of yellow! Because, I stress that in the off-season, they just look like any other tree. You wouldn't know when a tree was "taken over" until next spring when the yellowing begins! A controversial theory I admit, but also a scary one.
And if that's so, then I've just discovered an important little-known fact in the world of botany. Is there a Nobel category for botany? I have a pretty strong case I think. That's a sweet Prize. I'd love one of those!
The Nobel Prize.
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