Pollen season

UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions describes pollen as dust-like grains, some of it visible as blankets of yellow and green on cars and other surfaces. Plants pollinated mainly by wind, it adds, mass-produce their pollen to make sure it reaches female flowers, so their pollen is more prevalent, and pine pollen is known for laying on thick with yellow dust.

UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County writes that the yellow dust on a car is very likely pollen from a pine or oak tree, and that pine trees reproduce via wind pollination. In a March 2026 UF/IFAS release, an agent with the same office says wind-pollinated trees are the major culprits.

UF/IFAS writes that Florida has more frequent and longer pollen seasons than most of the United States, with trees generally pollinating in spring and winter and often releasing pollen from January to June. For Florida's 11 oak species, the office puts peak pollinating season at February to May, with high counts as early as December in some areas.

The March 2026 release describes the season starting in North Florida and creeping south, peaking in South Florida from February to May. In the same release, a UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County agent says the height of pollen season is March and April; the release's own South Florida window stays February to May.

The same UF/IFAS release says the fine yellow powder rinsed off a car in the morning is back by afternoon. It also says rain from frequent thunderstorms naturally suppresses pollen.

No source cited here says the film harms a sealer, stains a paver or etches glass. On glass the questions have their own pages: whether pollen sticks to windows, why windows look yellow in spring, and cleaning windows before an event. Florida's longer pollen seasons are part of how Naples exteriors differ from homes up north, and most of the February to May South Florida peak falls in months NWS Miami counts in its drier winter season, the stretch defined at the dry season.