There are many smart people in this world trying to explain pollen — where it comes from, why it’s among us, what effects it has on different people, from what plants it’s been generated and what the pollen count is, whatever that means.

We even have a “pollen season,” in which we are apparently experiencing in all of its glory.

It’s spring, folks: The days stay light longer, the temperatures climb, the school-day countdown shrinks.

And allergies have a field day, if you’ll pardon the pun.

This weekend, if case you haven’t noticed, the yellow dust that is pollen has made a grand, if uninvited, entrance. Like winter’s weather, autumn’s harvests, summer’s rains and spring’s promise, pollen has arrived and there are many explanations as to why it’s here now, and why it seems to have poured down upon us with little warning The degree to which it arrives apparently varies from year to year. This season seems to be shaping up to be a season of some consequence.

The greenish-yellowish chalky dust winds up on our cars, our sidewalks, becomes the visible residue edges of dried water puddles. And it seems to have descended heavily since the weekend.

Some of our friends, relatives and colleagues suffer greatly from this change of season, sneezing or coughing or developing voices we don’t recognize because of their nasal congestion or eroding throat conditions.

And just like the cold and flu season of a few short weeks ago, it seems as though everyone offers remedies: certain over-the-counter medications, specific dosages of natural fruits and vegetables, distinct means of washing our skin. All of those things are meant to relieve the effects of the allergies. Nice gestures, one and all, but none always fruitful (again, pardon the pun).

Somehow, nature seems to win these battles, takes the low road in these matters and bring normally healthy people to their knees.

Still, this is what a little research tells us about pollen:

Allergy

to pollen is called hay fever. Generally pollens that cause allergies are those of anemophilous plants (pollen is dispersed by air currents.) Such plants produce large quantities of lightweight pollen (because wind dispersal is random and the likelihood of one pollen grain landing on another flower is small) which can be carried for great distances and are easily inhaled, bringing it into contact with the sensitive nasal passages.

According to the so-called experts, pollen count is the measurement of the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air. The higher the number, the more people who will suffer because they are allergic to a particular pollen. Usually the counts are announced for specific plants such as grass, ash or olive.

Frankly, I don’t know what all of that means. I’m not that smart. I wish I had studied more in college, or at least listened to smarter people who spoke of such things.

But I can tell when that powder lands on cars, in puddles, on windows. And I can tell when co-workers suffer. And we all know we’ve reached that point.

Paul McFarlane is the Editor of The Tidewater News. His e-mail is paul.mcfarlane@tidewaternews.com.