When spring blossoms, it is the day of punishment for allergy sufferers.
Red and swollen eyes, itchy nose, sneezing one after another, the real experience of being an allergy sufferer is that you really want to die in place.
Many people are particularly puzzled, I haven't seen a single flower today, who made us allergic?
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In fact, many people's understanding of "pollen" is not comprehensive enough, thinking that only plants with large flowers such as peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, and cherry blossoms can spread pollen.
But I don't know that the plants that really make us sneeze and run through the sky are not blooming as we remember!
Don't look at the peach blossoms are beautiful and bright, in fact, their pollen is really not much, and their pollen volume is relatively large, it is unlikely to be suspended in the air.
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Unless you have to get close and take a sharp breath, they rarely have a chance of becoming your allergen.
These flowers are called insect-borne flowers, and they pollinate mainly by insects, so they are relatively large.
Can really sprinkle a lot of pollen into the air, so that every breath of air we breathe is full of allergens, in fact, the flowers are usually relatively small, less conspicuous wind flowers.
Because they rely mainly on the wind to spread, the flowers are degraded, small and inconspicuous, and have no fragrance and nectar glands.
And the way they improve their pollination efficiency is the amount of pollen - their pollen amounts are often so large that a gust of wind can turn a radius of several miles or even more into a poison circle for allergy sufferers.
For example, the willow cedar that blooms in early spring in Japan can directly form pollen clouds when the pollen is scattered; Under the right weather, you can fly hundreds of kilometers by wind all the way to bring the experience of alleviation to more people.
Since Japanese cedar is grown in large quantities in Japan, every early spring is Japan's allergy season, and it is no wonder that the Japanese are used to welding masks to their faces.
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Fortunately, there is no pollen big pollen farmer in Japan.
Unfortunately, birch, structure, mulberry, elm, maple, hanging suzuki, and various pine and willow trees widely planted in China are also pollen farmers.
And the season of their flowering is now - spring.
Last week, while visiting the park, I shook the branches of a pine tree on the side of the road, and in an instant I could see smoke-like pollen dispersing from the branches.
It was an allergy sufferer calling for help – thankfully I wasn't allergic, otherwise I would probably have fainted because of my own hands.
However, compared to pine trees that are not widely distributed, cypress is a bigger "killer", especially in Beijing, where I live, cypress is much more common than pine trees.
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Whether in various royal gardens, temples, public places or even in the suburban mountains, cypress is a very common green tree, planted in pieces.
Once the wind blows, they can roll up puffs of yellow smoke, which seems sacred but is actually fatal.
By the way, the Japanese cedar mentioned earlier is actually a pine and cypress.
Also common pollen owners in the north are already willow plants - they not only have flutters on the bright side, but also sprinkle pollen in secret, which is simply vowing to kill allergy sufferers.
Fortunately, after entering the summer, these trees that stand tall and can spread pollen far away have basically bloomed.
But don't let your guard down, in summer and autumn, weeds will start to bloom again.
Our common grasses, amaranths, goldenrods, and cannabis weeds will quietly sprinkle pollen.
Therefore, April ~ June and August ~ September every year are actually the high incidence season of allergies.
Among the grasses, dog's tail is the most widely distributed, and their hairy "dog tail" hides a large amount of pollen that is enough to make an allergy sufferer sneeze.
Among amaranth plants, species in the Chenopodinae subfamily are the most "deadly".
These plants, collectively known as gray ash, are also widely distributed in the north and south of the river, blooming and pollen without people noticing.
The most feared of the Asteraceae family is definitely ragweed, and it is no exaggeration to say that it can be regarded as the biggest killer of autumn pollen allergies.
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Native to the Americas, ragweed is a super-vigorous and vicious species worldwide. Once invaded, it quickly filled the entire land, and ragweed entered China as early as the 30s of the last century, and has long been expanded to many parts of the mainland under the intentional or unintentional carrying.
In addition to a wide distribution, what is more frightening is that ragweed pollen is very allergenic, which can not only cause coughing, sneezing, asthma and other problems, but also stimulate tears; Even skin contact can be irritating, which can cause redness, swelling, itching.
If you live in an area where ragweed is rampant, you need to wear not only a mask, but also goggles and long-sleeved clothes to completely isolate the threat of this poisonous weed.
Allergens in cannabis plants are actually common – hunging humulus is also.
Like ragweed, it is a very fearsome invasive species and can quickly cover an entire land.
However, compared to ragweed, the ability of humulus to make people allergic is still a little worse - after all, humulus is too prickly, and it will stay away to avoid being pricked.
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All in all, people with pollen allergies should keep one thing in mind:
If you want to be non-allergenic, in addition to staying away from those plants that bloom "big flowers", you must also stay away from trees and weeds that do not seem to bloom at all.
Author: Hydra Popular Science Author
Reviewed: Wang Kang, Director of the Science Popularization Museum of the National Botanical Garden
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