By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray
It appears everyone I see is sneezing and sniffling and saying, “it’s hay fever.”
What exactly is hay fever? According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, hay fever is allergic rhinitis – an allergy to something that makes your nose run. It has absolutely nothing to do with hay nor do you get a fever. Of course, I needed to check with specialists to figure that mystery out.
As many as 60 million Americans are said to suffer from hay fever. If you’re lucky, it’s seasonal – plant based such as pollen or mold spores. Perennial hay fever is year-round and is usually related to animals, such as pet dander, dust mites and cockroaches.
If you do have seasonal allergic rhinitis, you can follow the different plant pollinators depending on what you’re allergic to. Grass pollen is the most frequent, with pretty much any type of turf grass problematic from early spring to late summer. However, people with pollen allergies can also be allergic to weed, tree or flower pollen.
About 15 percent of Americans are allergic to ragweed pollen – not goldenrod as many people think. Burning bush and mugwort are also on the high allergy list. Weed pollen allergies start in August and last until the first hard frost.
Most people think of ragweed as an issue in the suburbs and rural areas, but that’s not the case. A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that ragweed pollen could be seven times higher in a city that averaged 3.6 degrees warmer and had 30 percent more carbon dioxide than the city’s rural surrounding area. It’s that infamous heat island effect. There seems to be no escaping ragweed.
Tree pollen allergies are less common and begin in early spring – March and April. The most common allergies are to ash, juniper and maple.
Flowering plants that rely on the wind for pollination will cause plant allergies in some people. Daisies, chrysanthemums and sunflowers are distant relatives of ragweed, so no surprise that those are some of the flower allergy plants. These allergies will show up at different times depending on the flower type.
I find that when the seasonal allergies are flaring, wearing a mask when I’m gardening (I know, we don’t want to go back to those days) and sunglasses does help to keep the pollen out of my eyes and sinuses. I’m highly allergic to leaf mold, so I keep a mask in my pocket when I’m out walking just in case landscapers are mowing and leaf blowing in the early spring and late fall.
Happy gardening and enjoy the pollen season.
Pat Dray is a past president of the Garden Club of Orange and a master gardener.