It's Snowing - Cotton!

Every May/June, I have about a week of cotton floating around and clogging up my air conditioner grill. But this year it's out of control! I've never seen anything like it. I assume the tree has gotten bigger and this is going to get worse every year instead of better. The gardens - and everything in the yard - is covered! Anyone else have cotton snow?

Cotton tree? Manna? Edible?

sanderson wrote:Cotton tree?  Manna?  Edible?

Oh, geez! I just realized I never actually said what it is, did I? To be honest, I wasn't sure until this year when I got such a deluge that I finally took the time to look it up. 

Turns out it's all from the cottonwood tree - I feel pretty dumb, I was looking at shrubs and smaller trees, but this one is one of the tallest trees in the forest.    I've always called them "scrub trees" lol. They have soft wood, and limbs and whole trees break off in storms. My land is perfect for them in the low-lying swampy areas. This one is the prettiest:

 You can see my dead ash trees behind it - the emerald ash borer came through and took out all the ash trees a few years ago.  

Here are the catkins hanging from the tree, and a closeup of the seed pods on the ground. I don't think there's enough Preen in the world to stop all of these seeds from germinating lol



Somewhere in my reading I think I saw that you can use the fibers to make string/yarn. Don't think it's all that edible, though.

Oh, my....