Are you looking for an answer to the question of when pollen season starts? This information can be extremely helpful if you deal with pollen allergies. Here’s when pollen season starts and how to react when that season does arrive.
Pollen season typically starts in March, and ends typically in the fall. Also, while pollen season is often a consistent cycle, there are many different plants that produce pollen at different points in the calendar year.
In addition to pollen source, your local climate and location can also impact pollen season, but generally it begins in March.
What Is Pollen?
Pollen consists of the reproductive component of flowering plants, and appears as a yellow, fine powder made of tiny grains.
Flowering plants reproduce from their male flowering part called the stamen, which has sacs of pollen located in anthers. As the pollen sac bursts, pollen is released and the process of pollination begins.
Pollination is the act of physically transferring the pollen from the male stamen of one plant to the female stigma of another plant by a third party such as an animal, insect, rain, or the wind.
Why Is It Beneficial To Know When Pollen Season Is?
Pollen is an essential component of the natural world. Without it, plants would not reproduce.
Knowing when your plants are ready for pollination can really help with good yield if you are a serious gardener. When it comes to growing things like sweetcorn, fruit trees, cucumbers, pumpkins, and a whole host of other vegetables, pollen is crucial for good pollination and a good harvest.
Understanding when pollen season occurs, depending on the species of plant, allows you to prepare and encourage pollination in your garden. You can make your garden more pollination-friendly and practice manual pollination if needs be.
For people who suffer from allergies, knowing when to pollen season occurs can be helpful for your health and wellbeing.
For example, I suffer from hay fever (pollen allergy), and I know that tree pollen affects me the most. Looking at when tree pollen season starts (typically around March) gives me a little warning so I can start to take medication to manage my symptoms!
Why Does Pollen Cause Allergies?
Pollen is not harmful to humans. It’s such a benign substance it can even be ingested as a nutritional supplement.
But there are a few people whose immune systems are hypersensitive to pollen. This is what triggers an allergic response.
When pollen enters the body through the mouth or nose, your immune systems identifies pollen as a danger. Your body instructs your immune system an immune response to eliminate this “danger.”
Your body may cough or sneeze, or your eyes may water in an effort to flush out the nondangerous “toxins.” You may have a rash, which is produced when your body releases chemicals called histamines. Your immune system produces histamines, which act as type of security guard tossing out anything that does not belong inside your body.
When Does Pollen Season Start?
Typically, pollen season starts in the very early spring, usually in March. However, not every flowering plant fills the air with pollen in March.
Pollen is produced by different species at different times of the year, and the trees make the biggest appearance first.
As the year goes on, other plants will begin to produce pollen, and this will go on through October.
If you have seasonal allergies, you will find relief between November and January when the pollen counts decrease significantly. Some plant species produce pollen year-round, however, and certain trees can even produce pollen as early as January.
Pollen season occurs at different times throughout the world as well.
When Does Pollen Season Start Around The World?
In the United States, the tree pollen season can start as early as February and generally runs until about May.
After tree pollen peaks, grass pollen season runs from about April to June, followed by weed pollen season, which typically runs from August through November.
As you move north to Canada you will find that tree pollen season begins around May (and sometimes towards the end of April if the weather cooperates).
Grass pollen season peaks a little later from May to July, it will also be during this time when weed pollen fully kicks off. Both grass and weed pollen season may calm down, but you can expect it to peak again between August and October.
In the UK, the pollen season usually starts in late March when the first trees begin to pollinate. This may ultimately not be until May though. Grass pollen season follows in May and runs until the end of July, but it is not over yet, since weed pollen can run until September!
Australia has slightly different pollen seasons, particularly in places such as Brisbane and the Northern Territory, which may experience an allergy season all year round.
If you travel south to Melbourne or Tasmania, the tree pollen season would peak around October and November. Grass pollen season is likely to be at roughly the same time and likely wouldn’t last for longer than a couple of months.
How Has Climate Change Affected Pollen Season?
Climate change is causing a lot of problems in the natural world, including pollen season. We are seeing reports that pollen season is starting earlier and lasting much longer in North America. This is bad news for people who suffer from allergies!
Research has shown that since the 1990s, the pollen count in the air is up by as much as 21 percent.
One main reason for this is climate change. I’m sure you’ve noticed that all the seasons seem to be mixing into one now. Summers are wetter and warmer. Winters are milder.
Since plants use environmental cues, like weather, to know when to create pollen, things are now completely out of sync. As a result, the plants and trees are producing pollen much earlier than they should.
On the other end of pollen season, fall is coming much later, so there is still a lot of pollen in the air right into October.
I can personally attest to this change throughout the years. As a child in the ‘90s, I typically started getting allergies around May or June.
Now, sometimes as early as February, I am being woke up in the night with an itchy nose and tickly throat; good reminder for me to not sleep with the window open!
Pollen At Different Times Of The Year
As mentioned, various plants emit pollen at different points throughout the year. If you’re trying to maximize your space in the garden or avoid the inevitable allergies, knowing what to expect each season can be very helpful.
Let’s begin in spring.
Spring
Tree pollen is typically the first to appear in the air, sometimes even as early as February – but usually begins in March.
The most common trees that you will see releasing their pollen includes oaks, birch, yew, and ash. For many people, allergies are associated with the lovely colorful flowers of the season. However, trees are often more subtle when it comes to releasing their pollen into the atmosphere.
This is because many trees rely on the wind for pollination, which explains your allergy set-off is early in the season. As the air circulation brings the tree pollen itself, it easily travels to your nose, mouth, and eyes while you are outside.
Summer
Grass pollen greatly increases in June during the summer months and is also a common cause of environmental allergies.
Explaining this is easy, as most species of grass generate large amounts of pollen, such as; Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, Timothy grass, and orchard grass, but only in bulk in northern parts of the country.
Grass pollen tends to begin developing the first couple of weeks of summer, meaning typically a start in May and can stick around pretty true for June.
The good news for seasonal allergic people is July will provide relief too, as dry, weather will inhibit the pollenation process.
Autumn
Now it’s the weeds’ time of the year! And ragweed is probably the worst offender. The actual term hay fever, comes from the fall allergies that farmers would experience in the fields during harvest time.
This is also when the Russian thistle, yellow dock, pigweed, and lambs quarters are all pollinating as well. Many people have become quite complacent by the fall and think that their allergies have passed but any of these species of weeds can bring if back with a vengeance.
Winter
For those suffering from a pollen allergy, winter is a welcome reprieve. Sure, there are some plants that pollinate during winter like willow and snowdrop, but this doesn’t bother most people with a pollen allergy.
What To Do When Pollen Season Starts
First and foremost, please discuss allergy care and treatment with your physician. With this qualification in mind, let’s discuss what to do when pollen season begins.
Allergic conditions are typically benign and can be handled at home. Typically, the most common form of allergy treatment is to take an antihistamine medication that is available over the counter; it will help block the effects of histamines being released by the body.
In conjunction, many individuals still think they are ineffective, specifically those who have severe allergic reactions. But don’t panic! Your physician can prescribe you stronger medication to mitigate your symptoms.
If you have a respiratory health issue (like asthma), you may be at higher risk of compromised breathing due to allergies.
As an asthmatic, I cannot overstate the necessity of sticking to a stringent regimen with your prevention medication; your physician may also encourage you to increase your dose, but do not do so without their direction.
Additionally, you can also avoid triggers by not going to areas with numerous trees and flowering plants or flaying grass; for instance, if an individual is allergic to grass pollen, going to a meadow for a picnic would typically not be a great idea!
There are also some home remedies that can provide significant relief for hay fever. For example, many people feel that drinking honey and lemon water will help soothe a cough.
You could even put Vaseline around the rim of your nostrils, which may help nicotine stay outside because pollen can stick to it.
Finally, I would recommend investing in wrap-around sunglasses to protect your eyes and wash your clothing regularly to reduce any pollen that may have stuck to your clothing.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for seasonal allergies or hay fever, but all of this can contribute to your symptoms and help improve your quality of life.
Final Thoughts
For anyone suffering from allergies, it’s important to know exactly when pollen season begins in order to prepare medication ahead of time. Doing so will reduce the likelihood that nasty allergy symptoms disrupt your daily life.
Also, knowing when pollen season commences is useful information for your garden; you can foster pollination with your plants at the appropriate time.
To sum up, understand pollen season is important.