Overview

All about pollen

It causes misery to millions of hayfever sufferers, but pollen is essential to life on earth. It’s a ‘powder’ produced by plants and trees to carry genetic material to the female part of a flower, allowing reproduction.

The name pollen comes from the Greek word for ‘fine flour’.

Some plants produce large quantities of the substance, relying on the wind to transport it from plant to plant, and tree to tree, to fertilise them. These airborne pollens are the major cause of allergies like hayfever.

Read about:

  Pollen allergies