Yellow dust on your windshield? Thank the slash pines

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

If you haven't seen it yet, be prepared for a dusting of yellow powder on your windshield.

"The slash pine pollen bath is coming," according to Palm Coast Urban Forester Carol Bennett. In the woods in Graham Swamp, Bennett cups a cluster of purple, cone-like structures at the tip of a slash pine branch. She gently shakes the branch, and a storm of powder is released into the wind.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, slash pine has a small native range, covering all of Florida and southern slivers of neighboring states.

Slash pine needles are about six inches in length. Pines with shorter needles in the area — about three inches long — are likely sand pines, according to Bennett.

"Slash pine is worked for naval stores," according to the USDA website. "This industry, one of the oldest in the United States, has supplied a large portion of the resin and turpentine used throughout the world since colonial times."