For out-of-towners, the pain and suffering begins at about 50 gr/m3:
Cedar: The Pollen Among Pollens
Cedar makes ragweed look like a breath of fresh air.
Forest Distribution Map
Very cool site by Texas A&M gives extensive data about the forests of Texas.
Know your Enemy
Learn everything you can about your enemy, so that you might destroy it. – Austin American Statesman
Young Friends of WLBOTT, Please Divert Your Eyes
Sex, Drugs And Plant Biology: Why Everything Is Covered In Green Gunk – KUT.org
UT Biology Professor Norma Fowler gives us the rundown on cedar pollen. [how cool is it that her last name is an anagram for “Flower”!]
It’s Not All Bad News
From BSW Health…. “Since asthma and allergies are often carried on the same genes, asthma is very often allergy related and the treatments can be very effective in combating both symptoms.” – BSW Health
If mountain cedar causes so much trouble, some sufferers have raged (between sneezes), why not clear it out? It’s a health hazard, it robs grazing land of water, and unlike its cousin Juniperus communis, you can’t make gin out of the berries (too bad, because a mountain cedar martini could be a surefire way to forget your allergy woes). The trouble with cutting down the cedars is that it would be ecologically unwise, not to mention impossible. They cover many of the 24 million acres of the Edwards Plateau, providing drought-tolerant, year-round greenery for erosion control, stock and wildlife shelter, and the raw materials for the fence-post industry. Physically and philosophically, cedar defines Central Texas.
If you think cedar fever is not that big a deal, then you haven’t lived here. It’s made it’s way into folklore and tall tales.
For example, while doing detailed in-depth, comprehensive, individuated[1], exhaustive research on cedar pollen (the length of time it took for my microwave burritos to heat up), I had a personal myth dispelled. Around Central Texas, it is commonly believed that cedars are an invasive species brought in by [insert whatever ethnic group Greg Abbott wants you to hate today]. But not so….
[1]WLBOTT Word of the Day
J. Frank Dobie – Famous Cedar Fever Sufferer
J. Frank Dobie (1888-1964) was truly a Texan’s Texan. Among other things, he suffered mightily from cedar fever (he’d just get on a train and head for the coast each year), but he wrote an entire book of short stories about Longhorn cattle, mostly from the perspective of the cow.
James Frank Dobie (September 26, 1888 – September 18, 1964) was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for his many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range. He was known in his lifetime for his outspoken liberal views against Texas state politics, and he carried out a long, personal war against what he saw as braggart Texans, religious prejudice, restraints on individual liberty, and the mechanized world’s assault on the human spirit. He was instrumental in saving the Texas Longhorn breed of cattle from extinction.
One of the book covers for Dobie’s The Longhorns features a New Deal painting from the Odessa Post Office by artist Tom Lea.
Description
The mural “The Stampede” by Tom Lea was painted for the historic former post office building in Odessa, Texas. The work, which has since been relocated to the city’s current post office, was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. A sign in the post office says that this mural was inspired by the song “Little Joe the Wrangler.”
Studio painter, novelist, WWII artists correspondent for Life Magazine, commercial artist and muralist: just some of the creative realms El Paso native Tom Lea worked in during his lifetime. Commonly marked as the patron-artist of West Texas, Lea uses influence from his years in the border city as well as time spent traveling to showcase the extraordinary and influential moments he witnessed. – The Midland Reporter-Telegram
Thomas C. Lea III
It is unknown if Tom Lea suffered from cedar fever, but he had an interesting life.
Early life and education
Lea was born on July 11, 1907, in El Paso, Texas, to Thomas Calloway Lea Jr. and Zola May (née Utt). From 1915 to 1917, his father was mayor of El Paso. As mayor, his father made a public declaration that he would arrest Pancho Villa if he dared enter El Paso, after Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916. Villa then responded by offering a thousand pesos gold bounty on Lea. For six months Tom and his brother Joe had to have a police escort to and from school, and there was a 24-hour guard on the house.
