The pollen from mountain cedar trees creates figurative and literal headaches every year for allergy sufferers. You may find yourself wondering how this year’s cedar season compares to years past.
...Technically, mountain cedar trees aren’t cedar trees at all! The plant we know as “mountain cedar” is actually ashe juniper (juniperus ashei).
Around Texas, ashe juniper trees mainly grow in the Hill Country, with male trees pollinating late in the year. By December, wind can easily pick up the tree pollen, spreading the irritating pollen grains across South Central Texas. By Valentine’s Day, most of the tree pollen has blown from the trees or has been washed out of the air, and cedar season comes to an end.
Above you can see the current mountain cedar season. According to Syring, the 2022-2023 season was delayed slightly due the Christmastime hard freeze. In her opinion, “it will be a below average season based upon the numbers so far and may not be as intense due to the dry summer and the hard freeze.”
That being said, even a below-average mountain cedar season still creates major allergy issues for cedar sufferers....