At 12:58 PM 8/17/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Can anyone suggest the sources of the black and dark-green pollen loads,
>appearing lately (past month or so) in our pollen traps?  Location is
>central NY State.
>
 
Some flowers may produce black pollen, but bees will also gather different
black smut spores off of grasses such as rice and other water grasses.
 
I would not be happy if I had much of this as these spores can be very
toxic. One experience I had was in selling "rice" pollen to a natural ice
cream maker and receiving his call and vivid description of the black
"pollen". "it explodes when mixed into the milk fat and forms a large
circle of black ice cream", he was not happy and the ice cream was
destroyed. After that I was very careful if any black "pollen" came
out of the traps.
 
ttul Andy-