'Elmageddon' hits Saskatoon and Regina as trees dump massive volume of seeds
Dan Zakreski | CBC News | Posted: May 31, 2018 11:00 AM | Last Updated: May 31, 2018
Good news is trees are not dying, but are 'stressed' by last year's dry conditions
The good news is that the thousands of Manchurian elm trees in Saskatoon and Regina are not dying.
The bad news is that we'll still be brushing the brown seeds off our clothes, car seats, back decks and walkways for another 10 days or so.
That's when the trees should have dropped all their seed pods, says one expert.
Rick Van Duyvendyk with Dutch Growers garden centre in Saskatoon says what we're seeing is the trees reacting to last year's dry conditions.
"Last year was a drought year, and in the drought years Manchurian elms suck up a lot of moisture. So if they can't get that moisture then obviously they're going to be stressed," he said.
"And any tree that is under stress will always try to reproduce itself. So it will produce an abundance of seed."
Van Duyvendyk says he's taken numerous calls from customers concerned that the trees were dying of Dutch elm disease. He says that's understandable, given that before the seeds dropped, it looked like the trees were wearing brown cloaks.
But the wind soon got the seeds off the trees and into, well, everything else.
He also added that the seeds are from Manchurian elms, which grow vertically and then branch out horizontally.
The completely vertical trees planted alongside downtown Saskatoon sidewalks are Brandon elms, which do not shed.