Field of Science

Are you allergic to haploid males?

Smarting, itching, watery eyes? Well, you could be allergic to males, not human males, who are more likely to just be annoying, but those endosporic haploid males wafting about and hoping to land upon a receptive stigma but end up in your nasal passages instead, those plant male gametophytes better known as pollen. Aided and abetted by the warm, dry weather, this fall’s allergy season is in full gear. Ragweed pollen is at an all time high in the upper Midwest this year, and then you get to add in harvest dust with all its mold spores for an allergy aggravating cocktail. It's a wonder the Phactor can breath at all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ragweed was a forbidden plant in Deerfield IL back in the '50s when I lived there - you got fined if they found it on your property. My ancient landlord showed up with his scythe every year and cut all the acres and acres surrounding our old farmhouse (the meanwhile coaching me on how to catch pheasants with corn and rat traps!). The fine certainly reduced the prevalence of ragweed. It's not a problem up here.

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