Homeowners have choices when it comes to planting trees, including choosing species which are better suited for those in the household who are allergy sufferers.
When it comes to springtime, there are trees which are “major pollen offenders,” other trees, not so much, and some which fall in-between, says Lou Meyer, an arborist who has worked for Davey Trees for 11 years and who should know about pollen, being a victim himself.
As the oak pollen season starts branching out, Meyer listed in a telephone interview “the three big offenders in the Middle Atlantic”: oaks, pines and maples. “Oaks have already started spreading their yellow dust over everything.
“Elms are another big offender and sycamores.”
Pines don’t spread as much pollen but they have a negative effect on everything that’s underneath them with their drops of yellow. Your car right now may be dusty from all the tree deposits.
Better trees to plant for reduced pollen are crepe myrtles, flowering crab apples, dogwoods, magnolias and tulip poplars, Meyer said.
Cherry blossom trees fall somewhere in-between.
Climate change affects pollen counts, too, since it’s causing an earlier, extended season with warmer winters. Meyer cited the early cherry blossom peak this year occurring on March 17, the second earliest on record, rather than March 23, the forecast peak date by the National Park Service.
Climate change is also causing increased carbon dioxide gas in the air, which stimulates trees to make more pollen.
After tree pollen ends its spread, then comes the grass.
“My dad could not mow the lawn after June,” Meyer said, recommending that grass height be kept between two and a half and three inches which keeps grass from flowering and producing pollen.
To nip as much pollen in the bud as possible, there are several actions homeowners can take, like avoiding sleeping with Fido, cats and other animals which have been outdoors collecting pollen.
When your pets come inside, wipe them off (which will be going out on a limb with cats).
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America says other solutions are to remove shoes outside, cover hair when outdoors or wash it at night, and shower when coming inside, but wait!
That may be barking up the wrong tree since the Dedicated Senior Medical Center says to hold on showers until bedtime so the pollen you accumulate during the day is not what you sleep with.
Medical News Today recommends not wearing “outside” clothes to bed (?), keeping windows closed, drying clothes inside rather than on a line outside, and washing and changing sheets often. (So much for saving energy.)
“Quality” air filters may make a difference, too, and as for dust procrastinators, guess what? You need to dust more.
Stay hydrated, consume lots of Vitamin C and for whatever reason, don’t forget quercetin which is found in fruits and vegetables and, to spruce up for the season, quercetin supplements can be taken for weeks and months before the season hits, says the Senior Medical Center.
You may also add apple cider vinegar to drinking water which may help. (Drinking vinegar?)
Allergy sufferers likely know all the medical remedies but do they know about honey?
Meyer stressed that although there is no scientific evidence for it, a homeopathic solution suggests eating locally grown honey may help build tolerance and some pollen immunity.
Could a spray for trees help reduce pollen? Meyer chuckled: “I’m sure if there’s a dollar to be made, there’s a spray for it,” but he was skeptical about efficiency.
Like among humans, “gender diversity” is important and so it goes for trees. Who knew?
It’s important for beauty, Meyer said.
Some trees have both male and female flowers where the females bear the fruit and the males spread the pollen. Some urban areas plant more male species of trees to promote faster growth and avoid slippage and falls on dropped fruit, but “just males” are “unsightly,” Meyer said.
A “cottage industry” he cited is the growing number of trees found on rooftops.
Meyer comes to trees by way of an education in communications and finance, but remembering a summer agricultural job he enjoyed in college and finding himself later staring out the window all day at his desk job, gave way to his return to nature and happiness.
“Trees are the greatest answer to climate change, in my opinion,” Meyer said. They are nature’s way of “helping clean air and water, their leaves reduce temperatures; and they transpire and create water vapor which exits through the leaves.”
He said the oaks and maples are both desirable trees for many reasons, and since they are found across North America, there’s no need to turn over a new leaf and move to escape pollen unless… it’s to the desert or to Arizona, but there, you might be pining for trees.
Patricia Leslie
