Messy trees to be replaced in Beijing

Beijing plans to use new poplar trees it has developed to replace more than 500,000 of the current trees, which release catkins in massive amounts every spring.

With temperatures rising recently, masses of willow and poplar catkins - pollinating flowers - have begun blowing throughout the city, which can cause problems with traffic and complicate the lives of street cleaners and people with allergies.

Kang Xiangyang, a professor specializing in tree breeding at Beijing Forestry University, led a research team to successfully develop the new type of poplar.