Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Pollen and me

This has got to be the worst allergy season I have ever encountered. How about you? Are your eyes watering? Are you sneezing? Itching? Breaking out? Yeah, me too.
It's all from pollen, that's right. I'm pretty sure.
What is pollen, you might ask?

pol·len/ˈpälən/

Noun: A fine powdery substance, typically yellow, of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone transported to the female ovule by the wind, insects, or other animals.

I'm looking at pictures of pollen and they're scary to say the least, and what they cause, I can hardly deal with it. 

What types of pollen trigger allergy symptoms?
 
Many trees, grasses and low-growing weeds have small, light, dry pollens that are well-suited for dissemination by wind currents. These are the pollens that trigger allergy symptoms. Seasonal allergic rhinitis in the early spring is often triggered by the pollens of such trees as oak, western red cedar, elm, birch, ash, hickory, poplar, sycamore, maple, cypress and walnut. In the late spring and early summer, pollinating grasses - including timothy, bermuda, orchard, sweet vernal, red top and some blue grasses - often trigger symptoms. Ragweed is the pollen most responsible for late summer and fall hay fever in North America.

Well there you have it!
Yuck! I can't say I'm looking forward to winter again, but kinda.

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