Allergenic plants

Allergenic plants blooming in spring.

After a long winter in our area, gardeners cannot wait for spring to return to their summer cottages and start planting. However, if you are allergic (according to statistics, 1 in 6 people have hay fever).

Then the joy of gardening will be overshadowed by unpleasant symptoms - sneezing, irritations of the skin and mucous tissues, watery eyes and clouded consciousness.

An allergy can occur to anything, but flowering plants are one of the most powerful allergens due to the fact that their pollen quickly spreads over long distances and is invisible to the eye.

You may not even notice the allergenic plants are blooming, but the huge amount of tiny pollen grains in the air can cause you an allergic reaction.

The start and duration of each of these three phases of pollination (trees, flowers, grasses and weeds) depends largely on where you are and what plants are nearby.

Spring allergenic plants are usually trees and shrubs with small and inconspicuous flowers that are pollinated by the wind. The amount of this pollen reaches its maximum in April-May.

A warm spring breeze is ideal for this kind of pollen, but on cooler spring days, its concentration decreases due to the humidity in the air. Heavy rainfall also reduces pollen, and there is significantly less pollen in the morning than in the afternoon.

Spring plants allergens: maple, poplar, elm, birch, mulberry, oak, walnut, pine, cedar, alder, juniper. In summer, you can also be allergic to herbs.

Autumn plants are allergens.

It is useful to know which plants you have an allergic reaction to during the fall. Pollen as a source of allergy in the fall comes mainly from weeds.

• Aster ragweed - is the largest allergenic plant in autumn, causing many problems with haymaking. This weed is a prolific producer of pollen: greenish-yellow flowers on just one ragweed plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains, which can travel up to 1000 km downwind.
• Sheep sorrel - despite its medicinal properties (folk antiseptic, diaphoretic and diuretic), the plant is a perennial weed with a characteristic arrow-shaped clot of green leaves, tiny red or yellow flowers (male flowers) appear above the basal rosette of leaves - producers of heavy pollen.
• Curly sorrel — a perennial allergen weed (sometimes grown as a herb in some gardens) with characteristic wavy leaves and reddish-brown flowers.
• Quinoa (henopodium) - This annual weed has broad toothed or triangular leaves that look like the webbed feet of geese. The leaves at the top of the peduncles are smooth, narrow and elongated. Flowers and pods resemble greenish-white balls at the tops of the main stem and branches. Despite its use in homeopathy, it is a strong allergen.
• Beetroot (upturned amaranth, bent amaranth, spiky amaranth, upturned scythe, bobblehead, common scabbard, bent bobtail) is an annual weed with diamond-shaped leaves located along a high stem. Small green flowers are densely packed in thorny inflorescences at the top of the plant with small thorns.
• Mold - Compost pits and wet leaves can build up this allergenic trigger.

Fall allergenic plants also cedar, wormwood, chernobyl, thistle (tumbleweed).

If you are prone to allergies, be careful not to grow an allergen plant on your site, read the lists and remember the names listed in them.