• CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    25·
    6 months ago

    Fun fact: many cities had issues with female fruiting trees because their fruits would rot on the ground, causing bad smells and rodents. So they replaced them with male trees.

    Unfortunately for allergy sufferers, this increased pollen counts exponentially. But that’s not all. Because these trees can “sense” that they are competing with other male trees, they produce even more pollen than they normally would.

    Edit: My information is outdated! It was based on an article that I read back in the early 2000s and it looks like it’s been debunked.

      • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        8·
        6 months ago

        In an age where cities are getting less and less tax revenue, replanting new trees that don’t fruit is often more cost effective in the long run.

        And even if you did hire a crew, they aren’t going to get every piece of rotted fruit. Animals, being what they are, will bury or hide them.

    • volodya_ilich@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      This is only partially true. Not all trees, and not even most trees, have exclusively one gender. There’s not that much scientific evidence supporting your claim of a conscious effort to plant certain gendered trees resulting in exponentially higher levels of pollen