Brown debris coming off trees?

[Porridgeislife]

I spent a few hours yesterday sweeping up brown debris that comes from the trees in a wood behind our house. It looks like brown pods/pollen - about 1.5” long and shaped like a grain of wild rice. It clumps together in corners with the wind.

Google is being unhelpful. Does anyone know what kind of tree drops it in spring? We have loads of beech, some oak, birch, hazel and cherry.

Is it not dried up hazel catkins?

No definitely not catkins. They’re smooth.

They look like the casing on beech buds but for some reason this phenomenon doesn’t seem to be mentioned on Google. It’s literally everywhere, I swept up 4 bin bags yesterday so it can’t just be happening to our garden!

The brown bit in this photo seems to be it?
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/47734/view/male-beech-tree-flowers

can you post a photo of one of them from your garden so we can see what they actually look like?

Here it is

Beech. Yes, standard behaviour. Only thing worse is birch seed catkin scales which can get through locked and sealed doors

I wouldn’t bother removing them from the grass, they’ll rot down quick enough, and shovel the rest on to the nearest border. Never say “no” to a gift of organic matter!

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation

Don't worry, I’ve left them on the grass. It was just the annoyance of having to sweep them up from our fairly big patio that runs the full perimeter of the house that annoyed me, as I spent most of my weekend a month ago jetwashing and getting it all tidy for summer.

Yes, beech. The new shoots have a brown papery coating that falls off once the leaves come out.