Beijing - Right now there are lots of white wispy things floating in the sky like snow. They're called catkins and come from willow trees. Many people find them annoying and now the municipal government will do something to decrease the numbers of them.

According to a report from the Beijing Youth Daily, the greening and gardening office will graft branches from male willow trees to female ones to avoid the "floating snow", which usually happens from April to May. Many locals resort to wearing glasses, veils and respirators to protect them against those downy flowers that people find annoying.

Furthermore, catkins also affect people's health, traffic and public security. Some people may get allergic reactions such as a rash, itchiness, asthma and bronchitis to catkins. Vehicles are prone to break down because of the cotton-like flowers blocking the front grill. Catkins also block the sight of pedestrians and motorists, which can cause accidents. And because catkins are flammable, the furry flowers can fuel fires.

"The major source of catkins in Beijing is from female willow trees and poplar trees," explained Yunpeng Gu with the Capital Greening Office. "Over 370,000 trees are growing all over Beijing's eight downtown districts. Therefore, massive felling and transplanting are not a feasible solution to the issue." Gu said.

However, grafting operations are not suitable for poplar trees because their branches are higher and denser than these of willow trees. To combat the catkin problem, the Greening Office will inject those trees with inhibitors to cut down the spread of catkins all over the city.

"There are no harmful side effects of the two methods and Beijing use them as a means of dealing with catkins." Gu added.

Yet some environmental experts expressed concern and pointed out that one important reason of catkins floating everywhere is because of the shortage of its lawns and grasslands for the furry flowers to land in. They point out increasing the sizes of lawns and planting more grass under willow and poplar trees would be more beneficial to the environment.

A researcher with Institute of Chinese Academy of Forestry is also alarmed by the city's plans. Qiwen Zhang was quoted in the New Peking Newspaper saying, "From the perspective of local residents, grafting means two or three sweltering summers without shade and brings about a large number of greening losses by cutting off so many branches."

"Even if some inconveniences exist, willow and poplar trees have been playing an important role in greening Beijing and timber production," Zhang continued, "Therefore we should have a more tolerant attitude towards the catkins problem."