What you need to know about poplar fluff. Poplar terror When will poplar fluff stop flying?

Of the 500 thousand city poplars, approximately 40 thousand trees cover Moscow with fluff in May - June. This year he flew a little earlier. And all because of the warm spring, as ecologists explain. For example, last year the poplars were planted at the end of June, because May and the beginning of summer were cold. Experts assure that the flowering and bushing of trees this year should end in the first ten days of June.

In fact, there is now much less fluff in Moscow than, for example, in the early 1990s, the head of the Department of Environmental Management and Protection told KP environment Moscow Anton Kulbachevsky. - Each poplar is the most effective air filter. They grow mainly along outbound highways - Leningradka, Prof. Union Street, Kutuzovsky Prospekt. They protect against noise and car emissions. We replace approximately 2 - 3 thousand poplars per year. In ten years, there will be so little fluff that no one will even feel it. Pushing poplars include females because they produce seeds. There is less fluff when rejuvenating pruning of mature and very old trees is carried out. Currently, under the “Million Trees” and “Hole to Hole” programs, we are planting three species of non-pushing poplars. These are the Berlin, Simona and Cherny varieties. Moreover, we take only male specimens. These trees tolerate soot, smoke and dust well and thrive in the city. For example, an adult black poplar can absorb up to 30 kilograms of harmful substances from the air over a season.

In fact, allergies are precisely to Poplar fluff in nature - a huge rarity. Allergies are caused by grass-weeds and other trees and shrubs, the pollen and spores of which are carried by fur balls, says professor allergist-immunologist Yuri Smolkin.

The fluff itself, getting into the nose and getting into the mouth, causes irritation of the mucous membranes. This causes a runny nose, tears from the eyes, and a sore throat. These are the most frequent symptoms seasonal allergies- hay fever. Symptoms of an allergy to poplar fluff:

Sore throat.

Redness of the eyes.

The eyelids swell, tears flow from the eyes.

Nasal congestion appears allergic runny nose(its difference from a cold is that the nose flows almost constantly, the discharge is liquid, transparent in color).

Possible skin reaction in the form of itching - itchy skin of the face and hands.

When does poplar fluff begin to fly?

In Central Russia, in the capital region, in particular, poplar fluff usually begins to fly in early June. Sometimes, if May is cold, the dusting of poplars “shifts” to the end of June and beginning of July. In 2018, May was warm, so poplar fluff appeared according to the usual schedule.

How long does poplar fluff fly?

Poplar fluff will fly actively for about ten days, maximum two weeks, then it will decline. By the way, in June in Moscow and the region high concentration pollen of coniferous plants - pine and spruce. Also, birch, maple, and willow continue to “gather dust,” but their violence is already on the decline.

7 rules for protecting against poplar fluff:

1. Try not to walk in dry, windy weather, especially from 11 pm to 8 pm - at this time the concentration of pollen in the city is the highest.

2. Buy a spray with sea ​​water(Aqua-Maris, Allergol, Aqualor, Marimer, Physiomer, Quicks and others - there are many of them, you can choose by price and bottle size). And spray your nose several times a day. This will not only help clear the nasal passages of fluff, but will also moisturize the mucous membranes and relieve swelling.

3. Don't let large cluster fur balls in enclosed spaces. When driving through poplar alleys, close your car windows. At home, hang either a small mosquito net or gauze moistened with water on windows and balconies.

4. Use humidifiers and air purifiers (washers). Increased dryness provokes allergy attacks. In order to always know what the air humidity is in the apartment, you can buy a simple household hygrometer (a device for measuring air humidity). Values ​​from 40 to 65 percent are considered normal.

5. If your house is surrounded by poplars, it makes sense to walk through the rooms with a wet mop twice a day - morning and evening. Most types of vacuum cleaners are powerless against poplars: they do not so much collect super-light lumps as blow them into the corners.

6. Many people complain that fluff makes their nose stuffy. And they start dripping desperately vasoconstrictor drops. But their constant use causes dryness and destruction of the mucous membranes. So if you can’t bear it, you can use such drops no more than twice a day and no longer than a week.

7. If you have a violent reaction, try to eat fewer foods while the poplars are dusting that can intensify allergic manifestations: honey, seafood, chocolate, citrus fruits, blue cheeses. And also do not drink herbal alcohol: tinctures, vermouths, liqueurs. It’s better to abstain altogether: any alcohol increases allergies.

IMPORTANT!

There are now many medications for allergies - antihistamines. But each of them is “sharpened” for removal different symptoms. For example, Erius works best against urticaria, fenkarol - against a sore throat, claritin, clarotadine - against skin itching. Therefore, when buying an antihistamine, you first need to consult a doctor or at least carefully read the instructions. And pay attention to this point: is it possible to drive a car after taking this medicine (some allergy medications cause drowsiness).

QUESTION ON THE TOPIC

Poplar fluff makes your eyes very itchy and inflamed. Is it possible to somehow fight this?

Evgeny Zaslavsky, allergist:

It looks like allergic conjunctivitis. The eyes become red, watery, itchy and itchy, and there is a feeling as if there is a speck there that is impossible to reach. The cause of the disease is hypersensitivity to plant pollen. If you have not yet been tested for allergies, then you need to do this as quickly as possible to find out which plant pollen you have a reaction to. Treating seasonal conjunctivitis is not easy.

The first important step is to at least limit contact with the allergen. When outside, protect your eyes with glasses; when coming from the street, be sure to wash your face to wash off the pollen.

Also, during an exacerbation, it is recommended to adhere to special diet, allergists call it elimination. Eliminate from your menu for a while such highly allergenic foods as chocolate, strawberries, canned fish, smoked meats, hot spices.

Go see an ophthalmologist. He will select antihistamines, anti-inflammatory drugs for you eye drops, “artificial tear” preparations. Often an allergic reaction is accompanied by an infection. Inflamed from allergies and losing her protective properties The mucous membrane of the eye becomes easy prey for viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms.

For several days now, Izhevsk residents have been complaining about poplar fluff - the city is literally drowning in “summer snow.” How to protect yourself from fluff, whether it is possible to cut down poplars and when the attack will end, Komsomolskaya Pravda found out.

It turned out that, contrary to popular belief, poplar blooms not in the middle, but at the beginning of summer.

Poplar blossoms in May, and pollination occurs in June,” says Dmitry Adakhovsky, a practicing biologist and teacher at Udmurt State University. - Exactly in June, and not in July, as the famous song says. Typically, flowering begins on the 3-4th and lasts about 10 days. This year it is 20 days late.

According to the expert, we are now experiencing the peak of the poplar fluff season. According to Adakhovsky's forecasts, it will last another 4-5 days.

WHERE DOES SO MUCH COME FROM?

Poplars began to be planted in Izhevsk in the post-war years - then it was necessary to quickly green the city. Fast-growing and unpretentious trees are ideal for this. Trees were planted as the city was built up. In addition to poplars, linden, ash, and apple trees were planted. Gradually, they abandoned the landscaping of city streets with poplars - there was too much fluff from them.

However, according to the chief dendrologist of Izhevsk in 1993-2006, Lyubov Yakovitskaya, not all planted trees have fluff.

In Izhevsk, work to maintain green spaces is not carried out at the proper level, she noted. – Now they are fighting poplars by performing deep pruning, which is not always suitable. Proper tree shaping can help, but it doesn't. the only way solve the problem of. For example, very old trees should be replaced with new plantings of other tree species: ash, linden, elm, maple - they are also well suited for urban landscaping.

There is another way to solve the problem - water the trees and knock down the fluff. This is exactly what they do in some other cities.

If at least the watering machines spray water not only on the roads, but also on the trees in the evening, then the poplar fluff will begin to fly in smaller quantities, it will simply stick together and settle on the ground, thereby not flying like snow around the city and the situation may get better, - Yakovitskaya noted.

But it’s not worth cutting down trees completely, experts are sure.

I don't think it's worth giving them up. Poplars are very necessary and useful, all the dirt settles on them, and despite the fact that for allergy sufferers it’s a complete hell, it’s impossible to live without poplars in cities,” says Adakhovsky.

By the way, according to the deputy head of the Izhevsk Improvement and Road Services Service, Firdaus Kharisov, now only emergency trees are pruned in the city - no other work is being done with poplars.

We do not carry out any work with poplars as such,” he noted. “However, if the tree is old and dry and is really in disrepair, it can be cut down or crowned.

We sent a request to the Izhevsk administration to find out exactly how the city authorities are fighting the problem, how many poplars are in the city now, and how many of them are planned to be cut down, and what trees will replace them.

HOW TO DEAL WITH ALLERGIES?

Poplar fluff itself is not an allergen, but it can carry street dust, microorganisms and pollen, which cause a reaction. In addition, poplar fluff irritates the mucous membranes of the eyes and Airways even healthy people.

Of course, it’s better to try not to be on the street, but if going out into the world cannot be avoided, then you can put on glasses, they will help protect your eyes from fluff, advised the head of the therapeutic department of city hospital No. 2, Anna Viktorovna. – And special nostril filters or just gauze bandages will help protect against poplar fluff getting into the nose. There are many medications available to help relieve allergy symptoms. But before visiting the pharmacy, you should definitely consult a doctor who will help you choose suitable drugs. In most cases, they have a number of contraindications and have side effects. Therefore, you should not rely on television advertising or advice from a pharmacy salesperson.

REMEMBER

A mosquito net installed in the windows of an apartment and office will protect the air in the room during ventilation.

Try not to go outside in the middle of a clear day - the warmer it is outside, the higher the fluff flies. So, from 11 to 18 hours it is better to be indoors.

IMPORTANT!

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in Udmurtia warns that poplar fluff can easily cause a fire. On June 25 alone, the department recorded five calls for burning fluff. The reason is careless handling of fire by unidentified persons.

Down is highly flammable and burns at high speed, notes the department’s press service. - The source of ignition can be an unextinguished cigarette butt or match, fire or welding work. For children, setting poplar fluff on fire is a favorite pastime, after which they often have to call the fire department. Down flares up like gunpowder and fire can reach buildings and structures.

Regularly clean, clean and water yards, sidewalks and roads where fluff accumulates;

Do not make fires or burn garbage;

Install water barrels and shields with a set of primary fire extinguishing equipment (fire extinguishers, sand, hooks, shovels, etc.) on the territory of the private sector and enterprises;

Stop any games by teenagers and children that involve setting fire to fluff.

In 2010, winter showed its harsh character with frosts and February snowfalls, the beginning of spring with a sharp lack of water, and summer began earlier than usual by at least 2 weeks. An abnormally warm April gave rise to the rapid development of greenery - already now, in the first ten days of June, ovaries are hanging on apple and pear trees, the size of which corresponds to the fruits of mid-late June, at the same time this year lilac, bird cherry, rowan have bloomed, and the leaves on birch trees have unfurled Moscow already in the last ten days of April. And, of course, the poplar made itself known, and how it did!

Based on long-term observations of the development of poplars, it has been established that the emergence of fluff begins in early June and lasts approximately 2 weeks - but this occurs under normal, and not abnormal, climatic conditions. Take a look - outside the window, a downy snowstorm sweeps away the sun's glare, city greenery, pockmarked streets... and this disgrace began in mid-May!! The lawns are covered with a white blanket, with every step the fluff flies up from under your feet, floats in the air, preventing you from breathing...

True, according to experts, such a picture was already observed in the 70s. But this doesn’t make it any easier for us. Let's figure out why many of us are hostile to poplar fluff and, in general, to poplar itself.

Why did they start planting poplars in cities?

Poplars have been used in urban landscaping since 1946. After the Great Patriotic War it was necessary to restore the appearance of Moscow as quickly as possible and replace the lost trees. It should be noted that previously in landscaping to create parks, gardens, shady areas, hedges and protective strips, coniferous and deciduous tree species were used - spruce, pine, larch, birch, bird cherry, apple tree, maple, ash, elm, oak, as well as shrubs - lilac, hawthorn, mock orange, acacia, bladderwort and some other species, but poplar was not used for these purposes.

The lost mature trees urgently needed to be replaced with something. Dendrologists suggested - it is different rapid growth, dense crown, ease of reproduction, resistance to urban conditions, decorative appearance, occupies less area than other trees, due to the compactness of the crown, and is relatively cheap. The proposal was considered, the landscaping program was approved by Stalin, and poplars came to Moscow and began their victorious march across the country. And, by the way, they fulfilled their task perfectly. But…

Mistake or oversight?

As a result, residents of the entire country are doomed to eternal “downy” torment. Why did this happen? And - the eternal question - Who is to blame?

Did the scientists make a mistake in their choice? The answer is no, we were not mistaken. So what's the big deal then?

Poplar is a dioecious plant, meaning it has male and female trees. The male ones bloom, giving pollen, pollinating the female ones, and the female ones already produce seeds equipped with downy fluff - the hated down.

A reasonable question: Was it really impossible to plant only male specimens?

So that’s exactly what was done! Only landed male plants– and this became a fatal coincidence. You can’t fool nature, and this was perfectly demonstrated by the example of poplars. It is known that plants, some animals and insects in certain situations, adapting to living conditions, are capable of changing sex. After all, the trees had to reproduce, so they found a way out. To everyone's horror and displeasure, botanists, dendrologists, and other industry specialists have observed the appearance of female catkins on male poplars, on branches next to the male flowers.

By the way, it should be clarified. Poplar fluff is not flowers, but poplar seeds. Poplar blooms even before the leaves appear; its male catkins appear immediately after the buds burst.

So does fluff cause allergies or not?

Allergists unanimously refute all attacks on poplar, claiming that poplar fluff does not cause allergies, but can provoke them. The period of summer fluff coincides with the flowering period of cereal grasses, birch, linden and other plants, the pollen of which causes very unpleasant and even life-threatening allergic reactions in sensitive people. And fluff is a carrier of pollen, various pathogens, and man-made pollutants.

The fluff itself is also unpleasant, being a purely mechanical irritant - in the heat it sticks to the body, tickles, gets into the nose, ears, and under glasses. Agree, it’s not very pleasant.

Besides, even without fluff, life in the city is full of troubles.

People suffering from hay fever, a reaction to pollen, can be advised not to leave the house without gauze bandage, do not keep windows and balcony doors open for a long time, use allergy medications prescribed by a doctor and in no case self-medicate herbal infusions and decoctions - instead of relief, you can sharply worsen your condition.

But this is not the only harmfulness of fluff. It penetrates the premises, accumulating in the corners in lush snowdrifts and piles, adding to the hassle of cleaning. The fluffs themselves are dry, volatile, weightless, and very flammable. Fluff is a fire hazard; one unextinguished cigarette butt thrown into the trash can can lead to a fire. And children often have fun throwing lit matches into the fluff.

How to fix the situation?

The only way, in my opinion, to radically change the situation is to replace Balsam Poplar and other non-fruit-bearing types of poplars, for example, Berlin Poplar, for several years. True, utility services do not want to hear about this, citing the excessive cost of the event and lack of funds. Choosing a suitable replacement crop is, of course, not an easy task. How to avoid getting burned again. But this must be done, otherwise the torment will continue to last.

It is possible and necessary to carry out competent pruning of poplars, forming them “from a young age” into a tree with several skeletal branches, and not into one bare trunk with thin branches, as is now done with mature, 50-60-year-old trees.

Residents of Tyumen will have to endure the downy attack for about two weeks - this is how long the balsam poplar scatters its seeds, which are generously planted almost throughout the city. The areas most affected by the poplar blizzard can be considered the House of Defense and KPD; in the new microdistricts there is no such scourge.

As the leading engineer of the Committee for Improvement and Gardening of the Kalinin District of Tyumen told the Vslukh.ru correspondent Lyubov Melikhova, poplar is a very useful tree, and if not for the only disadvantage - fluff, it would continue to be actively used in plantings. It copes well with noise and dust insulation, absorbs moisture well, which is important in our marshy area, and grows quickly.

Poplars began to appear in the cities of the USSR after the war. Landscaping began in Moscow, when it was necessary to quickly restore the appearance of the city, and then poplars spread throughout the country, including being planted in large quantities in Tyumen.

Author of the book “Walks in Tyumen” Alexander Ivanenko writes: “In addition to the frail woody vegetation of the Deputies Square, the microdistrict was filled with poplars. They were boarded immediately when the houses were handed over for occupancy, and they are all the same age as the microdistrict. A wonderful tree - balsam poplar - for the city. It grows quickly, with good conditions grows up to a meter or more in height per year, the leaves perfectly capture city dust, release healthy substances into the air - phytoncides, reduce noise, and are pleasant to the eye when they are densely green in the summer and brightly yellow in the fall, they simply reproduce: stick a poplar stick into the soil and Water it, it will turn green in a couple of weeks.”

Nowadays balsam poplars are no longer planted; in Tyumen they are being replaced by their pyramidal counterparts. What to do with old plantings? Naturally, you cannot cut them down.

“The city carries out planned anti-aging pruning of branches at a certain time - from October 15 to March 31, branches are pruned either by ½ or ¾ of their length. Now, in June, there can be no pruning, even if the fluff is very annoying to the residents, except for sanitary purposes - if the branches have broken off or the tree is dry,” said Lyubov Melikhova.

Tyumen residents also complain about poplars because allergies worsen in June. Doctors say that the fluff itself does not cause allergic reactions, but it carries grass pollen, which is the culprit of hay fever. .

Firefighters have a hectic life during the poplar flowering period - the fluff can cause serious fires. Here we can recall the fire at the Tekutyevsky cemetery and in one of the city’s garage cooperatives, which destroyed 12 garages.

He shared his expert opinion with Vslukh.ru Sergey Yurlov, who worked for 25 years on the environmental committee. According to him, poplars cannot be cut down en masse because of their fluff, since they are a kind of “vacuum cleaners” - they perfectly clean the air not only of dust, but also of toxins.

“They began to actively plant poplars in the 60s and 70s,” explained Sergei Fedorovich. – Then I didn’t really think about which ones were “male” and which were “female”, because the fluff comes only from “female” poplars. Now they are gradually being replaced by “male” and pyramidal ones. This process has been going on for more than 10 years."

According to Sergei Yurlov, solving the problem of poplar fluff needs to be approached comprehensively and, along with the gradual replacement of poplars, pruning of young trees should be more actively used. After pruning, the tree does not produce fluff for two years. And where there are a lot of poplars, you need to plant seedlings of other trees between them and remove the poplars as they grow.

Allergy sufferers mostly suffer from fluff. This year there are especially many of them compared to last year. There are more of those who are forced to toil and suffer. So the other day, in the courtyard at the intersection of Volodarsky and Ordzhonikidze streets, according to eyewitnesses, a downy whirlwind hit a girl passing by, which caused a strong allergic reaction, passers-by called an ambulance.

In the next ten years, the Moscow authorities plan to complete the “poplar fluff epic” in the capital, which has been going on for decades. We decided to find out whether we really need poplars and whether we can live without them.

An effective measure

Most North American poplars were brought to us from Europe in the 18th-19th centuries. Others are from India and China. Poplar-sedge has become the most widespread in central Russia. In total, 110 species of poplars grow on Earth, as well as a large number of their varieties and hybrids. We have 30 species, 12 of them are cultivated.

Active implementation of the program for landscaping new neighborhoods under construction began immediately after the war. The task was simple: choose an unpretentious and fast-growing tree, and plant it in areas allocated for landscaping near houses, along the edges of roads, in park areas. Poplar turned out to be such a “universal” tree - one of the champions in terms of growth rate. Each year, each tree becomes closer to the sky by an average of 2-4 meters.

Soviet scientists emphasized: poplars in cities are a temporary “green injection”; in 15 years it is necessary to begin replacing “fast greeners” with other trees that cause less trouble. However, even after 50 years, they did not begin to implement the replacement program, but they successfully introduced more and more doses of “green injections” into the “body” of megacities, provincial cities and towns throughout Russia.

Error or natural selection?

The “victorious march” of poplars turned into almost a tragedy: people began to grumble louder and louder about the fluff that covered the streets with a “snowy” carpet, “sneaked” into houses, and made them sneeze.

Questions started pouring in. Couldn't they have chosen a different tree? How could such an unfortunate mistake be made?

In fact, Soviet scientists were not mistaken in their choice. The fact is that poplar has “male” and “female” trees. The former bloom and pollinate the latter, and it is on the “female” poplars that seeds with fluff that irritates everyone appear. For landscaping, “male” poplars were chosen, which “do not push.” However, over time, botanists, to their displeasure, began to notice the appearance of “female” earrings on “male” trees. By “changing sex,” poplars tried to resist the massive seasonal “haircut.”

However, there is another version of the appearance of “female” poplars on city streets. During the Soviet years, gardening programs were often implemented at community clean-up days, in which ordinary citizens took part. It was simply unrealistic to invite a professional dendrologist to every community cleanup, who would identify and approve “male” poplars suitable for planting.

Harm or benefit?

Poplar fluff is not an allergen. It only spreads pollen from plants, the flowering of which turns into trouble for people prone to allergies. However, poplar fluff, being a mechanical irritant, causes sneezing and coughing, and causes discomfort in many Russians.

In 2008, Eco-portal published research by American scientists who stated that poplars can eliminate the consequences negative influence on the environment, including absorbing and breaking down the carcinogenic industrial solvent trichlorethylene, as well as other environmental pollutants: gasoline, chloroform, vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride.

Russian professor, head of the department of clinical immunology and allergology of NMAPE named after. P.L. Shupika Larisa Kuznetsova, is convinced that poplar fluff, like an “air brush,” absorbs carcinogens and salts heavy metals that come into the air from cars and industrial emissions.

Experts note that one poplar produces as much oxygen as 10 birches, 7 spruce trees, 4 pine trees or 3 linden trees. Over the course of a season, a tree “takes” 20-30 kg of soot and dust from the air. Poplar is extremely frost-resistant and is ready to adapt to the worst ecology, so finding a worthy replacement for it, according to environmentalists, will not be easy.

The head of the forestry program of Greenpeace Russia, Alexey Yaroshenko, is confident that if all poplars are removed in Moscow, the air quality will decrease so much that it will cover all the benefits of the lack of fluff. The ecologist is confident that large polluted cities do not provide an alternative: other trees, given the current air condition, will grow very poorly, if at all.

Fighting methods

Today, one of the most effective measures to combat poplar fluff is seasonal pruning. True, not in all Russian cities public utilities cope with the task at the proper level. While utility workers can still get to the central streets, they often don’t get to the courtyards and outskirts. So the janitors and volunteers are trying to collect and sweep away the poplar fluff to no avail.

Often children who like to set fire to “summer snow” come to their aid, which, understandably, does not cause delight among the authorities - citizens begin to be persistently reminded of the fire hazard of poplar fluff.

Pruning, by the way, has its downsides. Firstly, after being “cut”, the tree looks ugly for some time, which does not contribute to improving the urban appearance. Secondly, ideal pruning should be completed by applying a special healing composition to the wounds of the tree, which does not allow the tree to collapse. It is clear that landscapers have neither the energy nor the time to carry out such painstaking work. Trees rotted from the inside fall, destroying cars and injuring people. However, emergency situations old trees also create average duration The life of a poplar is 100 years.

In Moscow and a number of Russian cities, for example, Samara and Tomsk, planting poplars is prohibited. At the same time, comprehensive programs, which involve crowning, the use of special reagents that do not allow the seeds to open, and the gradual replacement of poplars with other types of trees - linden, birch, chestnuts. Cutting down all the flowering poplars at once means “denuding” the city streets.

Various types of poplar are widespread in Canada and the United States. In some American cities, planting “female” poplars is prohibited for the same reason - to avoid a “blizzard”. On special plantations, sterile hybrid varieties are grown, on which seeds do not develop; they are used primarily for the production of cellulose.

Americans use flexible poplar wood to make snowboards, boats, boxes, pallets and even electric guitars. University of Michigan biologist Curtis Wilkerson proposes using genetically modified poplars as an effective and cheap biofuel.

In Edmonton, Canada, starting in 1980, a program was implemented to replace poplars with other trees. It only affected urban areas, but wild trees continue to cause many problems for city residents. For residents who dream of planting a poplar near their home, as well as landscape designers who want to use this tree to decorate their gardens, Canadian authorities strongly recommend choosing only “male trees” or sterile varieties in special nurseries, and in addition, promptly replacing old trees.