More fun facts about pollen! The mention of "there's 10 times as much pollen this year" is actually a thing that happens. Some trees utilize a process called masting wherein every decade or so all the trees of the same species in an area will release 10 times the pollen and produce 10 times the seeds. It's thought this is done to saturate predators (there will be so many seeds that they can't all possible be eaten thus many more go on to sprout compared to a normal year), though it's not fully understood how all the trees in one area manage to sync up to all mast in the same year.