In Florida and elsewhere, it’s not your imagination to exacerbate your allergies

Evolution has promoted many reproductive strategies across the entire spectrum of life. From dandelions to giraffes, nature finds its way.

One such method creates considerable suffering for humans. Pollen, the infamous male gametophyte of the plant kingdom.

In Florida and other parts of the Southeastern United States, you know that it’s spring when your car turns yellow and pollen covers your patio furniture and what remains outside. Suddenly there are long lines in every car wash in town.

Even people who are not allergic to pollen are obviously an advantage for pollinators like me – they can experience sneezing and watery eyes every year during the release of pollen in the spring. Enough particulate matter in the air can make everyone irritate, even if the immune system doesn’t launch a full attack.

So why is there so much pollen? And why does it seem to get worse?

Trees don’t have easy time in reproductive games. As a tree, there are two options to disperse pollen.

Option 1: Employ agents such as butterflies and bees that can carry pollen to another plant of the same species.

The drawbacks of this option are that you have to invest in flashy floral displays and sweet aromas to promote yourself, and you need sweet nectar to pay your agent for its service.

Option 2’s budget options are far less accurate.

Wind was the original pollinator and evolved long before animal-mediated pollination. The wind does not require flashy flowers or nectar rewards. All pollination requires a sufficient amount of light and small diameter pollen.

However, wind is not an efficient pollinator. The probability of one pollen grain landing in the right place – the stigma or ovule of another plant of the same species – is infinitely small.

Therefore, wind-contaminated trees must compensate for this inefficiency by generating large amounts of pollen and be light enough to be carried.

For allergic patients, it means air filled with microscopic pollen grains that can enter your eyes, throat, and lungs, sneaking in the window screen and convinces you that you’ve inhaled a dangerous intruder into your immune system.

In contrast, plants that rely on animal-mediated pollination can produce heavier, sticky pollen because they adhere to the insect’s bodies. So don’t blame bee allergies – it’s really the wind.

Plants begin to release pollen based on several factors, such as temperature and light cues. Many of our temperate species respond to cues that mark the beginning of spring, including warm temperatures.

Research has found that pollen seasons have been intensifying over the past 30 years as the weather warms up. One study examining 60 locations across North America showed that pollen seasons increased for an average of 20 days from 1990 to 2018, with pollen concentrations increasing by 21%.

What can make this pollen even worse?

Strong storms are becoming more common and intense, especially for the southeastern United States, and it’s not just hurricanes. Wind is a vector of aerial pollen, so strong wind conditions can also exacerbate allergies. Pollen remains in the air for a long time on windy days and travels further away.

What’s worse, increasing storm activity could be doing more than transporting pollen. Storms can break down pollen grains and produce small particles that can penetrate deeper into the lungs.

Many allergy patients may notice that their allergies get worse during the storm.

The peaks of spring winds and storm seasons tend to correspond to the timing of the release of pollen in trees that cover our world yellow. The effects of climate change, such as longer pollen seasons and more pollen releases, and corresponding changes in windy days and storm severity, can help create a complete pollen storm.

Christine Cairns Fortin is an assistant professor of forestry at Mississippi State University. This article will be republished from the conversation under a Creative Commons license.