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All About Pollen

Trees, grasses, flowers, and weeds are busy most of the year. During the spring, summer, and fall seasons, plants of different kinds release tiny particles called pollen. The pollen rides on air currents, intended to fertilize other plants. Pollen is also one of the most widespread causes of allergy problems!

So what exactly is pollen? Pollen is a small, round male cell released by flowering plants and grasses. An average pollen particle is less than the width of a human hair. The granules are extremely light and dry and travel by wind; pollen can drift many miles. Ragweed pollen, for example, has been collected four hundred miles out to sea and as high as two miles up in the air. By contrast, pine pollen is heavy and tends to fall straight down without scattering. It rarely reaches human noses, and rarely causes allergy problems.

The problem pollens most often come from plain-looking plants like trees and grasses. These plants don’t have showy flowers but they sure do produce a lot of pollen. And most problem pollens come from prolific plants. A single ragweed plant can produce a million grains of pollen every day! It’s a good thing that ragweed plants only live for one season.

Each plant has its own particular time when it releases pollen. The beginning of pollen season is determined more by geography than anything else; a plant’s pollination depends on the relative length of day and night. Trees pollinate earliest, followed by grasses, and then weeds. After the first frost, pollen season is over for the year.

Spring, summer, and fall, you can check the day’s pollen count to get an idea what’s out there. If you know what your triggers are and what the pollen count is, you can determine whether or not it’s a good day to be outside. The pollen count represents the concentration of pollen in the air. You can get a separate pollen count for trees, grasses, and weeds, or a general count for all three. The count tends to be highest in the morning on warm, dry, breezy days. Chilly and wet days have lower pollen counts.