City will stop planting certain trees to curtail catkins

Beijing will ban the planting of female poplar trees in the future to prevent the mess of willow and poplar catkins - fuzzy reproductive tufts - that blow throughout the city every spring, creating problems for traffic, street cleaners and people with allergies.

According to the Beijing municipal landscape and forestry bureau on Sunday, the city will upgrade existing species and increase the variety of trees used in urban greening projects.

"In addition to upgrading the current poplar trees, we have adopted many methods for limiting catkin production, including chemical injection, trimming and thinning," said Zhang Bo, researcher at the bureau's science and technology office.