Beijing will enter a period which has many flying fluffy catkins. It is an annoyance for many people who suffer from allergies and respiratory diseases.

To deal with this problem, the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau will give injections to more than 200,000 willows and poplars to avoid their blooming. In the meantime, they also adopt other methods such as pruning and washing trees with water torches. In addition, they will avoid planting female willows and poplars in the future greening projects.

It is a natural phenomenon that willows and poplars bloom in spring. This is a mode of reproduction for their seeds to expand by winds. However, these trees have a distinction between male and female, and the female ones are the main objects.

However, these female trees were planted decades ago which means they are “adults” now, and they played an important role in protecting Beijing’s environment, so they can’t be simply cut off. The only way to deal with fluffy catkins is to replace these trees with other trees gradually.