Procreating

During this time of the year, many people complain with stuffy heads, watery eyes, sneezing and other conditions of allergies. And, naturally, their blame falls on all of the pollen that is wafting on the breezes of the season, a process known as anemophily ("wind-loving"). But I am here to share a different look at the floating bundles of plant DNA that color our world each spring.

I prefer to think of it as the plants "making love". God designed them in such a way that they use the wind as the vehicle by which to form the next generation. Since the wind is capricious and does not contain a direct path from male to female, the male flowers/cones produce copious amounts of pollen that they cast upon the airy "sea" with "hopes" of some of them finding their mark with a female flower/cone. Below are some facts about spring pollination that most people don't take time to consider.

1) Spring is a breezy/windy time of the year because of the change from winter to summer. It's a perfect time of the year for releasing pollen.

2) The catkins of hardwood trees make their appearance long before the leaves being to shoot out. If the leaves were first, the pollen would become entangled in the new growth and would not have a good chance of finding a female flower. Likewise, the needles of the evergreens make this same process possible because of their shape.

3) The catkins/cones of anemophilous plants are inconspicuous because they don't need to attract any pollinators to their lairs. All they need to do is produce the pollen and to not get in the way when it's time for the pollen to fly. Have you ever noticed how similar in shape a gymnospermic male cone and a angiospermic male catkin are to each other? Yes, that's right...another ponderable.

Of course, all the evolutionists wonder how such a mechanism is possible. The probabilities alone are almost impossible that such a means of love making would produce the next generation. But of course, each year, the "impossible" happens. Why? Because God designed it. Even in this flawed condition, creation works in amazing ways and points back to the Creator.

The next time you sneeze from a pollen "attack", watch your car color change overnight, or see small rivulets of yellow water running across your path, think on these ideas and understand that this time of the year only lasts for a short time. This is the plant's time for making love and we should allow them their time without complaint. After all, this world would be much less richer without anemophily.