Oak trees

I live in North Carolina, in the Triad area, and we have lots of large Oak trees on our property. Right now they are covered with a fuzy substance as the leaves come out. This stuff drops off the trees and just about everywhere. It cleans up easily but I am curious as to what it is and what it is called.

It is the bud scales, that protected the leaves through the winter.

Resin

It seems a bit odd to me that bud scales would amount to enough to be so noticeable, so maybe mulhouse is talking about the male catkins(flowers)? Is this fuzzy stuff long and yellowish, kind of like a caterpillar or much smaller and not yellowish? If it's like the former, then it's catkins, if like the latter then it's bud scales like Resin said.

I'm with you, kman; sounds like the flowers. Here in western NC, we're drowning in them just now from all the old oaks on the property. And yes, they get into everything and travel quite a distance from the tree via winds. Our windshields/cars are also daily coated with lovely pale green pollen on a daily basis. I have a very healthy respect for venerable old trees, but am always glad when these few weeks of high oak activity are over.

I'd wondered about male catkins but thought it was still a bit early for them to be finished and falling yet, that would be more like late May.

Resin

Different zones, I guess, Resin. Here the "flowers" and pollen are an annual April event. Actually here it's nearly over for the season: catkins no longer dropping and pollen diminishing.

Here too, it's usually an April event, although it looks like the Oaks which weren't obliterated by our severe cold snap will be dropping their catkins in May this year. Oak has been the #1 pollen in the air since the last 10 days of March this year, and I think it probably will continue well into May.

Oak catkins here are a late May early June mess. This is one time of the year I really dislike. They cling to everything. They collect in drifts in corners and mat down in big smothering clumps among the late spring flowers. They stick across flower buds and prevent them from opening. The dogs come in with them clinging all over their fur. They stick to shoe laces - Jam against your windshield wiper blades. The bright yellow pollen coats every outdoor surface. The wet catkins stain the concrete driveway brown for weeks. I don't even want to talk about the mess in the house gutters. Well, have I vented enough? You get the picture.

Great description, snapple: that really covers it!

Just about the time the oaks are finished here, then the pecan trees start. It's like a double dose. They don't really bother me though, I have raked them up and used them as mulch before.

They do make great mulch for rhodies and azaleas. But they are the very devil to clean up.
We are kind of "one with the 4 dogs" around here. Four furry catkin coated pooches coming in the back door heading for our bed, the couch, the recliner or their bay window means full alert with a bevy of grooming brushes.